Posted to MediaSyndicate.com (Mar 20, 2009 - 08:30 AM) : (Tulum, MEXICO) Mexico, a nation that spans nearly two million square kilometers (roughly three times the size of the state of Texas) has seen a barrage of negative press featuring its troubled border towns of Juarez and Tijuana. But caught in the proverbial crossfire of this media assault is small town Central America: one of quiet roadside taco stands, peaceful Caribbean beaches, and local tourism operators wondering just where everyone has gone.

Around 100 miles south of Cancun sits the beach town of Tulum, Mexico, both literally and figuratively a world away from the notorious crime hubs up north. Tulum’s romantic hotels, trendy bars, and rich historical flavor attract eco-chic vacationers from around the globe looking for alternative and unique travel destinations. Yet having experienced widespread growth over the past decade, Tulum residents and business owners are reporting major slowdowns parallel to the rise in violence of its northern neighbors.
“Visitors to Tulum have dropped twenty percent in the last 2-3 weeks alone,” claims Miriam Avila, Manager at La Zebra Resort, one of Tulum’s hippest beach hotels feeling the effects of such negative associated press. “The articles and news clips tend to lump Mexico’s problem areas together with the nation as a whole. Whereas in reality, Mexico is a huge country.”

Since international news sources began their coverage of the drug-related crime wave in northern Mexico, tourism and a sense of community-building have been stunted dramatically even in the country’s backwater retreats like Tulum.
“Not only have bookings slowed considerably,” reports Adrianna Mangino, Manager of Pez Ocean Palace hotel, another of Tulum’s new tourism fixtures, “but these reports have meant less spending, fewer jobs, and an overall anxiety in a town that has never experienced even a single gang-related incident. The good news for travelers, Mangino says, "is that we have lowered our room prices to try to encourage people to come and enjoy our piece of paradise."

According to experts, small towns like Tulum are rising in numbers as unintended casualties: the result of journalists and foreigners alike using labels as a means to portray Mexico as a whole.

The area’s locals too have become burdened by an image of Tulum that is not accurate to themselves. “We don’t understand why visitors would think of Tulum this way,” says Mariana Hernandez, a lifelong resident and employee of Tulum’s tourism sector. “People come here for romantic or family vacations.” Even precautionary measures, such as the Mexican coast guard officers who patrol Tulum’s coast for discarded drug cargo, tend to sit with idle hands.

While real dangers do exist in some regions of Mexico, many of the nation’s smaller destinations, along remote beaches or in the mountains, are guilty only in their tropical allure. No gangs, no drug wars, just paradise as it was intended.