Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Vital Statistics

The Yucatan is as safe as rural U.S. states.
The magnificent beaches and ancient ruins of the Mexican State of Yucatan are among the safest and most spectacular resort beaches in the world. Yucatan's low homicide rate is slightly lower than the rural U.S. States of Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Maine.
Mexico is safer than many cities in the U.S.
More than 150,000 Americans safely visit Mexico every day. And while the media sensationalizes stories of violence in Mexico, Mexico is safer than many major U.S. cities. Travelers feel relatively safe visiting popular U.S. cities like Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Washington D.C, or Atlanta. Visitors from around the world enjoy these vibrant cities in relative, reasonable safety. Yet each of these cities is statistically less safe than Mexico.
Mexico City is 4 times safer than Washington D.C.
The U.S. State Department in Washington issues warnings about Mexico, yet Washington D.C. is four times more deadly than Mexico City. Washington's murder rate has been cut almost in half in the last 10 years, but it still averages 24 per 100,000 vs. only 8-9 per 100,000 in Mexico City. How do you suppose the U.S. State department would feel if the Mexican government posted travel warnings for the U.S. capital? Mexico City is a cultural treasure that is larger than New York, London or Paris. In fact, it is about the same size as London and Paris combined.

Monday, January 30, 2012

The truth is that most of Canada is almost as safe as Yucatán.

Douglas Anthony Cooper on how not to get beheaded in Mexico from the Huffington Post Canada. Snarky but factual.

Let's put this in perspective. Imagine a nice family from Mérida planning their vacation in Canada. They do research on the internet, and decide that some things are just too risky. Tea at the Empress Hotel, for instance. Victoria BC is the second most dangerous city in Canada? "Butchart Gardens" must be Canadian slang for "the place where people get butchered."

So our family turns elsewhere. Hmm. Probably best to avoid "Edmonton's Murder Belt." Aiee. We'll go east. Regina? Are you out of your mind? "Saskatchewan reported the highest Crime Severity Index, followed by Manitoba." How about the East Coast? Not if our worried Mexican family cares about that crime severity thing: "St. John's had the largest increase." This is awful.

At last, after carefully considering Prince Edward Island, our sensible family decides it is just not worth the risk. (After all, homicide in PEI has skyrocketed.) You would have to be a fool to leave Mexico.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Mexico is not a Place

The Vancouver Sun
says....Mexico is not a place. It is a bunch of places, and some of them are safer than places in Canada.

I had a great time in Yucatan province last week, inland from Playa del Carmen. We rented a car and drove to Chichen Itza, which is stunning, and spent a happy night at a fiesta among the welcoming people of the colonial city of Vallodilid, watching proud young people dancing in beautiful, hand-embroidered clothes.

The murder rate in Yucatan is 2 per 100,000. Thunder Bay's murder rate is 4.2 per 100,000.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Even Fox News says the Yucatan is safe

A on Fox video that mentions how safe it is in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Merida. An interview with Robert Reed from Lonely Planet. I still don't think it's really safe her for Republicans but that is just my personal opinion...and I make an exception for the immediate members of my family.

Yucatan safer than ANY tourist destination in the USA!!!

And while parts of Mexico can be legitimately likened to a war zone, drug violence afflicts 80 of the country's 2,400 municipalities (equivalent to counties). Their locations have been well publicized: along the U.S. border in northern Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, and south to Sinaloa, Michoacan and parts of San Luis Potosí, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guerrero and Morelos states.

The flip side is that more than 95 percent of Mexico's municipalities are at least as safe as the average traveler's hometown. Yucatan state, for example, had 0.1 of a murder for every 100,000 people in 2010 - no U.S. tourist destination comes close to that. Most cities in central Mexico, outside of the scattered drug hot spots, have lower murder rates than Orlando.

San Francisco Gate

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Where are you coming from?

Last year we had a guest cancel their trip to Yucatan because they were afraid to come because of the crime. I don't think they had done any research but I understood their mindset and I refunded their deposit. Now when people ask me if they will be safe in Mexico it makes me angry. Not at them but at the media in the US. I live in a safer place than my brothers in Dallas and Nashville. Josh's family in San Diego live in one of Americas safest cities but the crime rates per capita are higher there than in Merida. I wonder if all my friends in NY know they live in one of America's safest cities? And America's 2nd safest city is on the Mexican border. Go figure.

Statistics for US cities with populations over 500,000.

Safest 10:
1 San Jose, CA
2 El Paso, TX
3 Honolulu, HI
4 Austin, TX
5 New York, NY
6 Louisville, KY
7 San Diego, CA
8 San Antonio, TX
9 San Francisco, CA
10 Fort Worth, TX


Most Dangerous 10:
1 Detroit, MI
2 Washington, DC
3 Baltimore, MD
4 Memphis, TN
5 Dallas, TX
6 Philadelphia, PA
7 Columbus, OH
8 Nashville, TN
9 Houston, TX
10 Phoenix, AZ