January 22, 2009
Organized criminal violence and other forms of public insecurity are being blamed by a Mexican hospitality industry executive for a sharp drop in tourism in at least 7 cities during 2008. According to Rafael Armendariz, president of the Mexican Association of Hotels and Motels, the national Secretariat of Tourism (Sectur) blamed narco-violence and other criminal activity for a ten percent average drop in tourism in the cities studied.
The cities included Tijuana, Ensenada, Ciudad Juarez, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Morelia, Culiacan, and Nuevo Laredo.
Three northern Mexican cities-Tijuana, Ensenada and Ciudad Juarez-registered the largest drop in tourism, from 13-21 percent, according to Armendariz’s information. Both Morelia and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, meanwhile, registered an average 8 percent drop in tourism. The combined downturn resulted in the loss of an estimated 580,000 tourists to the 7 cities. No precise economic impact was reported, but potential monetary losses could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Maria Gloria Ocampo, Guerrero state delegate for the National Migration Institute, earlier reported a sharp, overall reduction in the turnout of foreigners who visited Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco in 2008. According to Ocampo, the number of foreign visitors processed through airports in the two resorts plunged 19.3 percent last year in comparison to 2007, from 746,000 tourists in 2007 to 602,053 last year. Cruise ship tourists disembarking in Guerrero were also far fewer in 2008, down from 504,648 people in 2007 to 398,360 in 2008.
High-profile violence disturbed the peace of many Mexican border and interior cities last year. In Morelia, Michoacan, eight people were killed and scores injured when grenades were tossed into a large crowd celebrating Mexican Independence Day.
With more than 1,600 murders in 2008, Ciudad Juarez alone accounted for a huge chunk of the 5,585 murders nationwide the National Human Rights Commission tied to narco-violence last year.
Press accounts report at least 84 banks were robbed and 5,000 businesses forced to shut their doors in the border city in 2008. At least 3,000 families reportedly fled Ciudad Juarez, while 112 police officers -- the frequent assassination target of criminal organizations -- abandoned the force.
The negative tourism numbers are bad news for an industry that employs an estimated 2.3 million Mexicans. What’s more, they add bad brew to the kettle of a rancid economic stew that stirred this week.
New reports revealed that Mexico’s official unemployment rate (widely considered to be an underestimate) reached 4.3 percent in 2008- the highest figure in eight years. For their part, oil exports fell 16.8 percent to an average 2,799,000 barrels produced per day in 2008. While Mexico’s revenue from oil exports reached a record $43 billion in 2008, the bonanza was short-lived. Mexican earnings were based on last year’s record oil prices and an average price of $84.35 per barrel. By the third week of January 2009, Mexican oil fetched $37.21 for each barrel sold.
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Sources:
-- EFE, January 21, 2009.
-- La Jornada/Notimex/Reuters, January 21, 2009.
-- Proceso, January 18, 2009. Article by M.Turati.
-- El Sur, January 2, 2009. Article by Javier Rosado.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico
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