Ministry of Tourism, Mexico – Social Listening Report & Recommendations

As of Jan 10, 2018, 50% of states have a Mexico Travel Advisory Level of 3 or higher, however these are not the locations with the highest levels of tourism and moreover certain cities in the US are as equally as dangerous to travel to. Mexico is technically on par with Spain; however as of Aug 24th, 2017 Christoper Elliot suggests that the kind of activities described in the warning take place outside of touristy areas; however this seems to be changing; and as of October 31, 2017 RT suggests that Mexican hotels have seen a 10% decrease in booked nights in the coming year, upward to 35,000 cancellations – due to perceived rising drug cartel violence.

There is mix of sentiment related to Mexico. Obviously positive as it relates to the natural beauty, great culture, festivities and love of Mexico, however it is offset by conversations on drug-related crime and fear and concern related to tourism. Youtube overall trended towards providing the largest forum (over 50%) for asking if it is “safe to travel in Mexico.” Whereas major news outlets such as CNN, Brietbart, Fox News, La Times and surprisingly Business Insider picked up on “cartel violence & crime surge.” Underground sites picked up on lesser known topics such as “Tourism Blackouts & Tainted Alcohol”

There are no significant trends towards positivity or negativity, however there are spikes in news topics as related to tourism blackouts due to tainted alcohol namely a rape case at the Iberostar Hotel & Resort in Parariso del Mar, which seemed to activate additional reports of similar bad experiences by tourists experiencing other forms of crime including extortion, theft and assault.

While intentional homicide is projected to trend down, there are reports that fracturing cartel organizations expanding into new environments are overlapping into tourist destinations. Moreover, it seems popular for business news types to report and share violence related statistics.

While drug related crime appears to be a concern for tourists, there appears to be a growing concern related poverty related crime, most notably and recently spiking “tainted alcohol and blackouts” in August, 2017 which sparked ongoing conversations on underground sites (i.e. www.jsonline.com) related to other poverty related issues.

Overall Mexico’s youtube presence is quite popular with no significant volume of negative videos, except for the occasional viral video related to cartel violence; however it is interesting to note that the highest unpopular video on 2 properties seems corporate and cold in relation to user generated content; additionally negative sentiment aligns with the emerging themes of lack of security as well as income disparity of locals un-able to take advantage of local tourism.