When George Tenet, former CIA director urges his college-age son to cancel a spring-break trip to Acapulco, you know its time pay attention to the inherent risks of Mexican travel. Candace Jackson of the WSJ did a great job in her April 10, 2009 article describing the impact not only on tourism (20% of the tourist related businesses have closed in Tijuana) but also on business travel.
With an estimated 6,000 people killed last year, I think it is fair to say that this is a full scale war between the drug cartels and the Mexican government. Because of the corruption inherent in the local police forces, the Mexican military has been deployed to maintain control, especially in the border cities. Seeing the military deployed does not make for a relaxing atmosphere, regardless of the concentration of palm trees.
While most of the beheadings, kidnappings and torture is concentrated along the US border, travel in Mexico is of sufficient concern for a host of US colleges to send email to their students with a link to the US Department of State Travel Alert, and warn them not to travel to Mexico for spring break.
When Medical Tourism first emerged as a possible alternative to certain challenges in the US healthcare system, Mexico was touted as a viable option to the long flights required of other continents. The model, it seems, was to set up 'US-style' hospitals in Mexico, at a much lower cost...much as US manufactures did to access lower wages and costs of regulation.
While the actual seaside resorts may have escaped much of the drug war violence thus far, there is still the issue of how to access these comparatively safe areas directly from the US.
This concept of near-shoring in Mexico may emerge again should travel risks of the drug war subside.
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