| | |  Travel & Outdoors 
Mexico Still Safe, Experts Say
 Max Harrold - The Gazette
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November 17, 2010
| Several airlines, including Virgin America, have recently announced additional direct flights from U.S. destinations and elsewhere to Mexico resorts like San Jose del Cabo and Cancun. Despite the ongoing drug-related violence there, Mexican officials say tourism is thriving.
(AP/Virgin America) | |
The apparent slaying of another Canadian in Mexico may further stain the Latin American country's safety record, but experts agree it probably won't prevent tourists from Quebec and elsewhere in Canada from continuing to visit there in huge numbers.
"All those good travel deals are just too tempting," Jean-Francois Mayer, a Concordia University political science professor who is an expert on Latin America, said yesterday. This is despite increasing drug-related violence and fear in Mexico's north, he noted, where 28,000 lives have been claimed since 2006.
"It's become a real psychosis among Mexicans," Mayer said.
He noted that Daniel Dion, 51, a Canadian businessman last seen alive in Acapulco Oct. 22, was working in Mexico with prison inmates -whom he employed to make purses out of recycled materials.
Dion's relatives from Quebec were escorted last week to his burnt-out rental car, in a remote area about 115 kilometres from Acapulco, in southern Mexico. Remains found in the car are being tested to see if they are Dion's.
Dion's daughter Alexandra Dion said yesterday the family is "saddened and angered" by media reports about his criminal record in Canada, including a 1995 conviction for drug possession for the purpose of exporting, possession for the purpose of trafficking and carrying a concealed weapon. His sister Silvy Dion said on Facebook: "It was after a car accident and his doctor told him to take some drugs because he could barely move."
Alberto Lozano, press attache at Mexico's embassy in Ottawa, said Dion's death should be put in context.
"Fifteen Canadians died in Mexico out of more than 4 million who have visited since 2006. And some of those were drownings and falling off balconies."
Canada's Foreign Affairs Department warns Canadians to "exercise a high degree of caution" when travelling to Mexico. Lozano said Mexico's government is "working to ensure first-class safety" in all regions of the country.
Colette Brown, of the House of Travel Westmount travel agency, said she advises clients going to Mexico to stay in all-inclusive resort compounds that have their own beaches, entertainment and high-level security.
The south is safer because of tourism, she added.
"People have jobs there and so they're not busy doing other things," she said.
mharrold(at)montrealgazette.com
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Canadians heading down Mexico way
1,222,739: Canadians who visited Mexico in 2009.
925,401: Canadians who visited Mexico between January and June 2010.
18.2 per cent: The increase in the number of Canadian tourists to Mexico from the same period in 2009.
Six-year record: If this trend continues in 2010, Mexico will register a record number of Canadian visitors for the sixth consecutive year. 500,000 plus: Canadians who have visited Cancun this year.
3.59 per cent: Percentage of Canadian citizens travelling to Mexico in 2009, compared with 1.73 per cent of Americans who went to Mexico.
2.8 per cent: Canadians who entered Mexico across its land border with the United States in 2009. Most others went by airplane.
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