Mexican beach resorts may get fewer college students from the United States this spring break.
The State Department renewed its travel advisory alert for Mexico, singling out the states of Michoacan, Coahuila, Durango and Chihuahua, along the United States-Mexico border, as especially dangerous for United States travelers.
Four American citizens were killed in Durango in December and January, and the level of drug-related violence has risen in a region called La Laguna in Coahuila.
Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million in Chihuahua near the Texan border, registered over 2,600 murders last year, making it one of the world’s most dangerous cities. All told, Mexico tallied more than 6,000 drug-related deaths last year.
That said, crime overall in Mexico is down from its late 1990s highs. But the perception of drug-related violence, combined with leftover fears of the H1N1 virus, has taken its toll on Mexico’s reputation as a safe travel destination. Tourism dropped 20 percent in 2009 from the previous year.
[adrotate group=”10″]
