Mexico Tourism Board Leading Effort to Ease Safety Concerns

The Mexico Tourism Board is combating what officials believe is widespread misperception in the U.S. of the safety and security issues facing travelers to Mexico by launching coordinated public relations and communications efforts of the country’s destination marketing agencies.

As part of the strategy, the tourism board launched a website, www.mexico-update.com, and dispatched tourism officials to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Houston for press conferences called “Setting the Record Straight.”

The message from the board is that the drug cartel violence is mostly isolated in five of Mexico’s 2,400 counties and that the U.S. government’s travel alert, which was renewed Feb. 20, is not a travel warning to discourage Americans from traveling to Mexico but an advisory outlining security problems along the border, thousands of miles from major resort areas.

The U.S. is Mexico’s largest international market, with 18 million U.S. travelers in 2008. No tourists have been injured, kidnapped or killed because of drug-related violence, according to the tourism board.

The tourism board is working closely with destination marketing organizations throughout Mexico to coordinate public relations and communications messages sent to travel agents, tour operators, the media and the traveling public, he said.

The Los Cabos Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken several steps, including inviting wholesalers and airline executives to a VIP Summit to discuss safety fears and marketing strategies, said Ella Messerli, vice president of marketing.

Tourism is an important part of the Mexican economy, the second-largest source of the country’s income after oil, and President Felipe Calderon is committed to ensuring that tourism remains strong.

While the tourism board’s public relations and communications strategy was revamped in recent weeks to focus on the safety concerns, its advertising message has not changed: the country is easily accessible from the U.S., represents great value and a diversity of culture and vacation experiences.