Riviera Maya, safe and reliable destination

The President of the Association of Hotels of the Riviera Maya, Conrad Bergwerf described as sensationalist the news transmitted by a Canadian program and stressed that Canadian tourism continues to arrive at the destination and consolidates as the third most important market by the number of visitors.

A few days before the start of the Easter holiday season, the leader of the hoteliers of the Riviera Maya said that this is a safe and attractive destination to visit for national and international tourism, including the Canadian market that is consolidated as its third principal issuer of visitors, only behind the United States and Mexico. He agreed with the point made by the Consul of Canada in the Mayan Riviera, Leon Lajeunesse about the climate of confidence and confidence experienced by Canadian tourists during their stay in Playa del Carmen and its surroundings.

"The tour operators are still betting on the destination, they are the first to be aware of the safety of their tourists. The government of Canada also considers it safe for its citizens to visit Quintana Roo by not issuing any travel warning so far."

According to the most recent statistics of the AHRM, Canadian tourism represents almost 14 percent of visitors who arrive in the Riviera Maya, only behind the United States, which represents 34 percent and the national, with 19 percent.

According to the Tourist Promotion Council of Quintana Roo, Canadian tourism was one of the markets that grew the most in 2018, registering 1.1 million visitors, which represented an increase of 8 percent over the previous year, and 52 percent of these travelers were repeating visitors to the Mexican Caribbean.

The Mexican paradise that was dyed blood red with the noise of narcos bullets

The sounds of the Caribbean Sea and its showy turquoise blue were changed by the roar of the bullets and the blood-red in the Riviera Maya, the jewel of Mexican tourism. The continuous armed attacks that have taken place in this area for two years are increasingly alienating tourists. Quintana Roo is the favorite destination of Mexico, the sixth most visited country in the world, so in 2017 the state received 16.9 million tourists.

The natural beauties of cities such as Cancun, Tulum, and Playa del Carmen, became a strong magnet for visitors, but also objects of desire of criminal groups seeking to gain control of the area. The Secretary of Security of Quintana Roo, Alberto Capella Ibarra, admitted that one of the most solid lines of investigation on the events that took place in the bar "Las Virginias" is a dispute related to drug trafficking, according to Infobae.

Several reports from the Ministry of the Interior and the National Security Commission have documented that in the Mexican Caribbean there are four important and dangerous Mexican cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel disputes the control of the sale of drugs and extortion with the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel that was gaining ground in recent years under the command of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes alias 'El Mencho'. The Zetas and the Gulf Cartel also seek a "slice of the cake" in the destination frequented by domestic and foreign tourists.

In 2017, an armed attack took the lives of five young people at the Blue Parrot discotheque in Playa del Carmen. A conflict between Los Zetas and an antagonistic group resulted in revenge that marked a before and after in the town. Before this event, places like Playa del Carmen were quiet medium-sized populations, but their population growth was accompanied by an abrupt increase in high-impact crimes.

According to figures from the Criminal Incidence of the Mexican Common Law, they indicated that homicides increased by 600% in one year. They went from 100 in 2017 to 688 between January and November 2018. On the other hand, the murder rate rose from eight to 17 per 100,000 inhabitants. Cancun is among the Mexican cities with the highest perception of insecurity in the country. 84.9% of the population feels insecure according to the National Survey of Urban Public Security (ENSU) of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

The influence of the cartels has been underpinned by the birth of local gangs that serve as an armed wing for their purposes. The Sweeper, The Trash, and Los Pelones are some of the groups that plague the most vulnerable population of the province of Playén. For their part, the state authorities recognize that the controversy between members of organized crime is compounded by the porosity of the municipal police, which is often corrupted. That is why they have proposed a unique command strategy to coordinate their actions, but they have encountered resistance from some municipalities such as Playa del Carmen or "Playa del Crimen" as they are called by their inhabitants and visitors.