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The Mexico Quandary: Safety or Savings?

Tourists walk along the beach in front of Zazilkin, a hotel with rustic cabanas in Tulum, on the Yucatán Peninsula.

Though resort areas are mostly free from drug-related violence, some travelers avoid Mexico, leaving deals for those who dare. By MICHELLE HIGGINS, New York Times WHEN Alex Trettin and his wife, Jenn, suggested to family and friends that they take a group vacation to Mexico, the reaction was mixed. About half of the group of [...]

Loopt Checkins Can Get You Two-for-One Tickets to Mexico on Virgin America

Social-media savvy airline Virgin America, which used Twitter to announce its expansion to Toronto, is making use of location-based rewards network Loopt Star to draw attention to its next international expansion: Mexico. Virgin America will be running non-stop flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Cabo (SJD) and from Los Angeles (LAX) to Cancun (CUN) beginning [...]

Alaska Airlines special – Made in Mexico – book by November 19, 2009, for travel through March 17, 2010

For over 20 years, we’ve been offering amazing experiences that can only be created in Mexico. Discover ancient civilizations, stroll barefoot on a pristine, sun-drenched beach and tantalize your taste buds with foods authentically prepared by warm, welcoming people. Plan the perfect escape to any one of our 10 destinations and find your own made [...]

Puerto Vallarta, Cancun still plagued by H1N1 (swine flu) and crime fears

Examiner.com If you have thought about going to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico’s most popular gay destination, now may be the time. According to MarketWatch.com, airfares to Puerto Vallarta over the Labor Day period are down 27% compared with last year and room rates in Vallarta are down 9%. Cancun has been even harder hit. Airfares have plunged [...]

VICTORS EMERGE IN MEXICO’S BUDGET AIRLINE WARS

Alanet News With Mexican discount airline Volaris offering new flights from Oakland to Guadalajara and Toluca (31 miles west of the Mexico City) since last month, and to Tijuana beginning Aug. 28, Bay Area travelers finally have direct access to low-cost flights to Mexico. It’s a bright spot in a shake-out year for the no-frills [...]

10 tips for taking kids to Mexico

Christine Delsol, Special to SFGate.com Wednesday, July 8, 2009 Whether your ideal Mexican vacation is a succession of frosty margaritas delivered to your beach palapa by white-shirted waiters or busing at whim from village to village with your backpacks in the overhead rack, those days are gone once you have children in tow. With a [...]

WHO showers accolades on Mexico, warns swine flu is unstoppable

China's Health Minister Chen Zhu apologized to his Mexican counterpart at the two-day summit in Mexico. In May Mexican authorities had to charter a plane to bring back 136 of its nationals from China after they were thrown into isolation due to the swine flu scare

by Jamie Anderson – July 4, 2009 Mexico, July 3: Day one of the two-day summit in Cancun, Mexico, where the meeting of global health officials is being held, saw World Health Organization Director Dr. Margaret Chan cautioning that the spread of the dreaded H1N1 virus cannot be halted, making travel restrictions to affected countries [...]

Be neighborly, go to Mexico

There are several good reasons Americans should help out the Mexican economy with a trip south of the border. By Andrés Martinez LA Times June 9, 2009 Your neighbor needs your help. Do you have it within you to lend a hand? Will you book yourself a week on the beach in Cabo or [...]

Fearless travelers can cash in on Mexico’s post-flu deals

Christine Delsol, Special to SFGate.com The San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, May 28, 2009 It’s been two weeks since the State Department and the Centers for Disease Controllifted their travel warnings on travel to Mexico, and the deals are rolling in. The CDC lifted its recommendation against nonessential travel to Mexico on May 15, citing evidence that Mexico’s flu [...]

Mexico’s battered image yields travel deals

By Stephanie Chen CNN May 26, 2009 (CNN) — Mexico’s tourism industry has endured some brutal punches this year. First, the global financial crisis hampered vacation spending. Then, escalating cartel drug violence scared some travelers. Business went from bad to worse in late April, with the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus, also known as swine [...]

How new hotels can transform emerging markets

May 26, 09 | 1:58 am By Laura Kalcevic In a recent assignment, HVS was asked to project the likely market behavior of a proposed luxury hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Presently, the Zihuatanejo market features two luxury and two upscale properties, with up to four new projects being proposed in similar or superior service categories. [...]

Oceanside Luxury Made Affordable (Think Mexico)

Hotel des Artistes del Mar - Punta de Mita luxury hotel and fine dining featuring Thierry Blouet's beachfront bistro, Cafe des Artistes del Mar

by DEIRDRE VAN DYK Time Magazine Mexico Beckons. On May 15 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its ban on nonessential travel to Mexico. Now, a month since the height of concern over swine flu outbreak, the country’s resorts are on a mission to coax back skittish tourists. Twenty Mexican hotel chains [...]

Mexico Goes On Sale

By SARAH NASSAUER The Wall Street Journal With a clean bill of health and a lifted travel ban, Mexico tries to draw tourists back with deals and perks. Everything for the wedding was ready — the on-site florists, photographers, and a 35-foot acrylic platform built over the blue ocean water at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort near [...]

Carnival Cruise Lines to resume visits to Mexico this month

By Hugo Martín May 16, 2009 LA Times Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise line operator, announced Friday that it would resume visits to Mexican ports later this month. The decision came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would no longer recommend that Americans avoid non-essential travel to the country [...]

Swine Flu Takes Toll On Mexico Tourism Industry

Tourists are a rare sight on the beaches of Cancun, Mexico, since the swine flu outbreak. Hotels, restaurants, bars and other attractions in Cancun are empty as nervous tourists cancelled travel plans. Officials say recovery could be months away for the tourism industry, a vital part of the national economy.

by Jason Beaubien NPR - Morning Edition May 14, 2009 · Americans Vicky Long and John Papadakous are savoring their Caribbean vacation in Mexico. The swine flu outbreak virtually emptied the white-sand beaches of Cancun, along with its bars and hotels, meaning there is plenty of staff to pamper the couple from Baltimore. The swine flu [...]

Flu? What Flu?

by ELISABETH MALKIN Published: May 8, 2009 MEXICO CITY — If you are looking for a cheap travel destination, try Mexico. Short of war, Mexico has endured about the worst calamity that can befall a country’s tourism industry over the last few weeks. A few people who had traveled here came down with what looked, initially, like [...]

Is It Safe to Go to Mexico?

Tourism has suffered as drug-related violence across the border has surged. But canceling a vacation to Los Cabos or the Mayan Riviera may not be necessary. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123931839488506787.html By CANDACE JACKSON Teresa Bitler thought about spending Easter this year lounging on the beach in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, with her husband and two daughters. Then she changed [...]

Spring-breakers heed call to avoid Mexico

By ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press Writer Posted: 04/05/2009 08:35:45 AM PDT PLAYAS DE ROSARITO, Mexico—A few years ago, thousands of American college students packed the streets outside Playas de Rosarito’s hottest beach bars during spring break. Cavernous clubs offered concerts, bikini contests and all-night drinking. This year, it is sometimes hard to find any tourist [...]

Mexico: The elusive truth about safety

Posted by: Tom Foster, Monday, Mar 30, 2009, 10:15 AM If you happened to watch the news or pick up a newspaper (or even just leave the house) this past week, you probably got hit with the flood of news about escalating violence in Mexico’s drug war. CNN sent Anderson Cooper to El Paso, Texas, where he [...]

Mexico vacationers safe, smiling and planning to return, despite the U.S. Department’s travel alert

Despite the negative press and the U.S. Department’s recent travel alert, vacationers are still heading to Mexico to plunge their toes in the sand and bask in the tropical sun, while taking advantage of the budget friendly deals. The reports continue to be positive in resort towns with Mexico vacationers safe, smiling and planning to [...]

TV Blamed for Fear of Mexico

By ARTHUR FROMMER Published: Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 12:01 a.m. Last Modified: Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 9:48 p.m. Recently, my daughter, Pauline, tangled with a famous television talk-show host on the question of tourism to Mexico – and held her own. If you will go to www.crooksandliars.com and search for the term “Mexico” in the [...]

Readers weigh in on travel to Mexico by Catharine Hamm

Question: Should student Sarah Tjoa go to Cancún, Mexico, for spring break? She posed that question in a letter to the Travel section, and in the March 15 “On the Spot,” we asked readers to weigh in. Here is some of what they had to say. We just returned from a wonderful vacation on the [...]

Warning to Tourists Heading to Mexico for Spring Break

Resort destinations like Cancun, Alcapulco, and Puerto Vallarta are far enough away from the danger zone. UNR study abroad staff members say, their students have been in country for several months and have had no problems. They warn students to use common sense, stay away from strange and out of the way places. Michelle Cobb, [...]

Who Controls Paradise?

RON STODGHILL The New York Times COSTA Alegre, Mexico CRUISING along the swerving, mountainous roads of Mexico’s western coast, past trees and vines, blue lagoons and scattered wildflowers, Goffredo Marcaccini stops his Jeep and thrusts his head out the window. “Ahhh,” he croons, inhaling the morning air. “The smell of the earth! Nice, like the [...]