Each and every nation depends upon vacation to bolster its economy.For Americans, Mexico has proven to be a popular tourist attraction.To most tourists, a escape in Mexico means something at a luxury beachfront resort.Reuters reports that the latest brand of Mexico excursion is far off the beaten path, however.”Danger tourism” that takes thrill-seekers into the maelstrom of sex, drugs and open violence of the current drug war is all the rage.
Threat travel and leisure within Mexico: some slack through the ordinary
Most people would not spend vacation cash placing themselves in the middle of a war zone, but some people are happy to utilize the services of the more “underground” travel agencies on the market.By taking advantage of fringe travel agencies, tourists can run with Zapatista rebels. They can also witness the carnage of the drug war up close.The Tepito black market on the back streets of Mexico City wait.Cesar Estrada, proprietor of Universal Travel, indicated to Reuters that despite the very real chance that tourists will be robbed at gunpoint, such hazard tourist is quite popular.
”We tell visitors to dress simply. If they want pictures, our guides take them discreetly,” Estrada told Reuters.
A trip into ‘the real Mexico’
A German tourist by the name of Donata Von Salviati told Reuters that the experience of hazard travel and leisure gives outsiders “the kind of insight to the real Mexico one could not get in a beach resort like Cancún”.Adding to the theme of “the real Mexico,” one tourist agency enables danger tourism aficionados to pay 200 pesos ($15) to hire a fake human trafficker (aka polleros or coyotes) for a nighttime run that simulates being a migrant crossing the southern border of the United States.No food or water is allowed on the trip through bushes and across rivers.Tourists run for their lives, or fake la migra snares them like runaway cattle.
A monetary boost for Mexico?
Danger tourism is nevertheless a bit of a wild card for Mexico’s economy, according to Reuters.Tourism in general accounts for 9 percent of the nation’s economy, and thinking about just how much damage the drug wars have done to Mexico of late, it appears likely that hazard travel and leisure helps more than it hurts.As Martha Stuart says, “It’s a good thing” – unless too many tourists are caught in the crosshairs, that is.
Reuters
reuters.com/article/idUSN2463303
