USA: United Airlines Drops Some Mexico Flights Because Of Declining Demand

United Airlines will cut service to a few destinations in Mexico this year due to a decline in demand, but will beef up a few flights too.

The airline announced yesterday it will eliminate its Mexico City-Los Angeles service on October 4.

It will also cut flights this summer to the Pacific coast resort towns of Huatulco, Oaxaca, and Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and to Villahermosa, Tabasco.

In addition, a Saturday flight between Mexico City and Denver will end June 23, and service between Mexico City and Houston will be cut by one frequency.

The airline will drop two daily flights between León, Guanajuato, and Los Angeles in October.

However, United will increase flights on two other routes and add one new one.

Starting October 4, it will fly three times daily between Newark, New Jersey, and Mexico City, up from twice a day, and open a route connecting Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport with Leon.

The airline will increase service to four times a day between Queretaro and Houston, and on December 19 will begin flying a larger, 76-seat aircraft between the Texas city and San Luis Potosi.

While our Mexico network remains strong, customer demand on certain routes has declined and service to some markets is unsustainable, United said.

We continue to closely monitor demand for travel in the region and look for new flying opportunities for our customers.

The airline said it has doubled its passenger capacity between the two nations over the last decade, and remains committed to Mexico.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: U.S. Warns Travelers As 14 People Are Killed In Cancun Close To Tourist Hot Spots

One of Mexico's most popular resort destinations experienced a rash of homicides last week, raising concerns about the safety of tourists in the area.

In the span of 36 hours, officials said, 14 people were killed in Cancun. Five people were also wounded in the wave of violence that is believed to be related to cartel activity.

The bodies were found near major tourist destinations in the city, the station reports.

Nine of the deaths took place April 4, making it one of the bloodiest days in Cancun's history, according to Noticaribe, a news organization based in Quintana Roo.

The site reports 16 people have been killed in Cancun so far this month.

Five people a woman, her daughter and three friends were found shot to death April 4 in a house about 25 minutes from the beach, according to SIPSE, a Mexican media conglomerate.

Police suspect the family was involved in the drug trade, according to the media group.

The same day, three merchants were fatally shot on a street in a commercial area about 10 minutes from the Puerto Cancun marina.

On April 5, violence returned to the same part of Cancun, where two more people were killed, according to Novedades de Quintana Roo.

The consul general of Mexico in Austin, Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, acknowledged the risks in the city. Cancun is considered an area where tourists should exercise some caution.

The Mexican government knows organized crime poses a threat to its economy and has added security forces, he said in an interview posted by KXAN-TV in Austin.

Tourism is an extremely important industry for us. It has increased at approximately 10 percent per year for the last four to five years.

That means that for Mexico and for the Mexican government it's extremely important to exercise all cautionary measures, Gonzalez Gutierrez said.

Experts have attributed the increasing crime to drug cartels generally, as well as specifically the United States' opioid crisis and looser marijuana laws are spurring gangs to shift from growing marijuana to producing heroin, according to USA Today.

Mexico reached a record 29,158 homicides in 2017 and the rate in the first two months of 2018 rose 21 percent over the same period last year, the newspaper reported.

But Mexico's tourism officials have emphasized that such statistics are not related to incidents that directly affected foreign visitors to places such as Cancun.

The U.S. State Department also has recognized that many homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations.

But turf battles between criminal gangs have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens, and shooting incidents injuring or killing bystanders have occurred.

The tropical coastal town of Cancun, which is perched along the Caribbean Sea in southeastern Mexico, attracts millions of Americans to its warm beaches each year.

The U.S. government issued a travel advisory earlier this year for several popular tourist spots in Mexico, including Cancun which is known as the spring break capital of the country.

The advisory said Americans should exercise increased caution because of widespread violent crimes such as homicides, kidnappings and carjackings.

If you're planning to head to Mexico for spring break, you'll want to pay attention to the U.S government's latest travel advisory.

Travelers are encouraged to exercise increased caution in some areas, including several that are popular with Texans such as Cabo San Lucas, Cancun and Cozumel, and avoid others spots altogether.

The travel advisory issued this wintersays violent crime such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery is widespread and some areas of the country have an increased risk.

There are also additional restrictions for government employees in some areas.

The country as a whole has a Level 2 rating from the U.S. Department of State, meaning Americans should exercise increased caution because of crime concerns.

An additional 11 of Mexico's 31 states have a Level 3 warning, which urges people to reconsider travel and five have a Level 4 or do not travel warning.

States under the Level 2 warning include Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Mexico City, Puebla, Queretaro, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Tabasco.

The same level applies to Baja California Sur, the state with the tourist areas of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo and the second-highest homicide rate 61.6 per 100,000.

Also under a Level 2 warning: Baja California, where Tijuana is located, and Quintana Roo, which includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and the Riviera Maya.

Baja California state as well as Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo have had an increase in homicide rates compared to the same period in 2016, officials have said.

Most of those slayings appear to have been targeted and the result of turf battles and assassinations between criminal groups, but bystanders have been injured or killed, according to the advisory.

In some areas, such as Campeche and Yucatan states, travelers have been warned that police presence and emergency response is extremely limited outside of the state capital, the advisory says.

Travelers are encouraged to reconsider trips to Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Estado de Mexico, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Zacatecas because of crime.

Jalisco is home to the city of Guadalajara, the Puerto Vallarta resorts and the lakeside expat communities of Chapala and Ajijic.

U.S. citizens have been told not to travel to the states of Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Colima, according to the advisory.

Previously, the State Department had discouraged travel to all or part of those states, but the new warnings are sterner, placing them on the highest level of potential danger.

U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling to Guerrero state, including to Acapulco, where armed groups maintain roadblocks and may use violence toward travelers.

In Tamaulipas, violent crime is common and gang activity is widespread.

Armed criminal groups target public and private buses traveling through the state, often taking passengers hostage and demanding ransom, the advisory said.

Colima has seen homicides skyrocket in recent years due to the growth of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the state now has Mexico's highest homicide rate, with 83.3 killings per 100,000 residents, according to figures for the first 11 months of 2017.

People who decide to travel to Mexico should use toll roads when possible and avoid driving at night, be cautious when visiting local bars, nightclubs and casinos.

Don't show off wealth, and be extra vigilant when visiting banks and ATMs.

Travelers are also told to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive alerts and make it easier for officials to locate you in an emergency, read crime and safety reports for the country and follow the U.S. State Department on social media.

For the full advisory and additional details about the various risks and restrictions, visit the State Department website.

In August, the State Department advised visitors to exercise caution.

But the country's tourism minister Enrique de la Madrid said then that the warning and figures the advisory was based on didn't tell the entire story, especially of safety in tourist destinations.

Madrid said that the U.S. advisories covering Mexican states are overly broad and aren't tourism focused.

We take these warnings very seriously, he said then.

Mexico is a safe country to visit, it is a welcoming place. And we're working on our issues, but those issues don't relate to the risk of a foreign tourist in Mexico, Madrid said.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: Magnitude 8.2 Quake Strikes Mexico

Mourners have lined the streets in the Mexican city of Juchitan to pay their respects to those killed in an 8.1 magnitude quake. Over half of the quake's victims were killed in the city, while 5,000 homes were destroyed.

Multiple funeral processions converged on cemeteries in the southern Mexican city of Juchitan on Saturday as residents buried family and friends who died in the worst earthquake to strike Mexico in 85 years.

Out of the 65 known victims of Thursday night's 8.1 magnitude quake, 37 of them were killed as buildings collapsed in Juchitan.

The picturesque city was the hardest-hit in the nation, with 5,000 homes destroyed and many more left without running water or electricity.

Accompanied by the sound of snare drums, horns and saxophones playing serenades for the dead, pallbearers carefully maneuvered caskets around the rubble in Juchitan's graveyard.

A toddler was asleep when the quake's tremors brought down his bedroom walls on top of him, his mother and older brother. Maximo died shortly after he was pulled out of the rubble.

A woman was displeased at Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's response to the disaster. The president made a brief appearance in the city on Friday, declaring three days of national mourning and pledging to rebuild.

Pena Nieto was able to make it here in his helicopter super fast. That's how help should be arriving, right? Exactly how he got here. But it hasn't, Alvarez said, reflecting a belief that southern Mexico has been neglected by the richer north.

Rescuers continued to comb through the rubble with sniffer dogs and heavy machinery to search for survivors.

Several residents dragged mattresses onto sidewalks to sleep outdoors, with some concerned that their badly damaged homes could collapse at any moment.

Mexico's Interior Department reported that 428 homes were destroyed and 1,700 were damaged in the state of Chiapas alone, which was closest to the epicenter.

The earthquake was felt around 800 kilometers (500 miles) away in Mexico City and as far south as Honduras.

Just one day after the quake struck, Hurricane Katia made landfall north of Tecoluta in Veracruz state as a Category One storm.

Meteorologists cautioned that Katia could still bring 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 centimeters) of additional rain to the region, which has a history of deadly mudslides and flooding.

The most powerful earthquakes to hit Mexico was followed by Hurricane Katia, which roared onshore in the Gulf. The president has declared three days of national mourning.

Rescue workers were struggling to cope with two natural disasters after the earthquake off the southern coast was followed by Hurricane Katia hitting the coast north of Tecolutla in Veracruz state overnight into Saturday.

The US National Hurricane Center reported Katia's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 75 mph (120 kph) when it made landfall and then weakened as it moved over land, becoming a tropical depression before dawn.

The center said that Katia was stalling over Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains, where it could bring 10 to 15 inches (25 to 37 centimeters) of rain to a region with a history of deadly mudslides and flooding.

After the earthquake on the other coastline, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto said 45 people were killed in Oaxaca, 12 in Chiapas and four in Tabasco. The death toll is likely to rise from the 8.2 magnitude earthquake, which struck off Mexico's southern Pacific coast late on Thursday, officials said.

Pena Nieto on Friday visited Juchitan in Oaxaca, one of the worst hit cities, where at least 36 people were killed.

The priority in Juchitan is to restore water and food supplies and provide medical attention to those affected, Pena Nieto tweeted after visiting the devastated town. Authorities have handed out ration packs, blankets and other supplies to people left homeless in the town of 100,000 people.

The quake's epicenter was about 123 km (76 miles) south of the town of Pijijiapan in Chiapas, but the shock was felt over 900 kilometers north of the epicenter, in the capital, Mexico City, knocking out electricity and sending residents fleeing swaying buildings.

The Interior Department reported that 428 homes had been completely destroyed and a further 1,700 homes were damaged in Chiapas alone.

The quake was also felt in much of Guatemala, which borders Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state.

The temblor occurred in a very seismically active region near the point of collision between three tectonic plates: the Cocos, the Caribbean and the North American.

At least six other magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquakes have hit the area since 1900 - three of them within a nine-month period from 1902-1903.

Civil Defense officials wrote on Twitter that their personnel were patrolling the streets in Chiapas, aiding residents and looking for damage.
Chiapas Governor Manuel Velasco told broadcaster Televisa some homes had been damaged and a shopping center had collapsed in the town of San Cristobal.

"Homes, schools and hospitals have been affected," Velasco said.

In Tabasco state, next to Chiapas, Governor Arturo Nunez said two of the dead were small children who were residents of his state. One child was crushed by a falling wall while the other was an infant who perished when his ventilator stopped functioning after a power outage in a hospital.



Tourism Observer

MEXICO: Yucatan Is A Weddings And Honeymoons Hot Spot

The tourism industry of “honeymooners”is becoming a strong potential for the state, coupled with destination weddings that for three years became a boom for these service providers, said the Council Business Tourism of Yucatan (Cetur).

The president of Cetur, Jorge Escalante Bolio, remarked that many people are choosing destination Yucatan to spend their honeymoon, especially in the haciendas and boutique hotels in Merida.

Fashion is in the city of Merida, especially in its beautiful ex-henequen haciendas, but it is also producing a boom of people who choose to spend their honeymoon in our city, he said.

He points out that Yucatan has the potential to be one of the country’s most important destinations in the honeymoon market, where haciendas, archaeological sites, beach hotels and local infrastructure are visited.

We have a great variety of services, offering the exclusivity and beauty of the haciendas, boutique hotels, gastronomy, historical sites and the mysticism of Mayan culture, for wedding services, he said.

In the months of April, May and June there was an important influx of wedding tourists from states like Tabasco, Veracruz, Michoacán, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, as well as from the United States and Europe.

Many couples are already choosing to marry in the state with pre-Hispanic ceremonies themes.

In recent years, the Historic Center of Merida has experienced a revival that, in the opinion of residents, business leaders, foundations, businessmen and habitual visitors, gives it new life and charm.

Remodeled and embellished by their owners, rescue programs of municipal and state governments, and in the last days by companies that rehabilitate them, the sites have now a different face in contrast to the past.

Hostels, hotels, inns, restaurants, coffee shops, galleries, multiple shops, offices and houses resurface like the phoenix, remodeled, painted and adapted to the needs of their owners around some traditional neighborhoods of the city.

Many of these places are embellished with trees and plants at their doors or with new windows and doors, according to the colonia area where they are located.

The same happens with parks, streets, passageways, avenues and emblematic buildings, as in Santa Ana, Santiago, La Ermita and the 64th street that goes from this place to the Arch of San Juan, or the neighborhoods of La Mejorada and Santa Lucía. This last one is one of those showing the most economic revival in the last five years.

In addition, the many cultural activities that take place in the so-called monuments area of the city, as well as sports and entertainment attract many people outside of those who circulate due to the commercial movement.

Also the multiple activities held in the downtown as “In the heart of Mérida”, which is held on Fridays at 60th Street; “The Mexican Night”, on Saturdays at the Paseo de Montejo Walkway; “La Vaquería” on Mondays at the gates of the Municipal Palace, and the “Pok ta pok” (Mayan ball game) on Fridays in the Cathedral, make this area of Mérida receive the admiration of everybody that comes to see.

To them are added “The nights of legend”, the serenades of Santa Lucia, the musical remembrances that take place on Tuesdays in Santiago, the nights of trova in the Museum of the Song, the Bike-Route, “Mérida on Sunday “, theaters and even the marathons that take place in centric streets.

All this means that Merida has not only local but also foreign vistas, such as the numerous neighbors of other countries who have adopted the city as their second residence and who have chosen the tranquility of some neighborhoods at the Center to establish themselves.

After acquiring and remodeling their estates, they live adapted to the customs of the region and they walk as anybody else through streets and markets, in search of healthy, fresh and organic products.

“My best customers are now the Americans”, commented smiling a woman at the market Lucas de Galvez when asked how currently her sales were going.

“They like to buy lots of fruit and vegetables, only the most fresh. They take it, they see it complete, they smell it and they take it, they even come with their sabucanes (A traditional bag commonly used in the region by the people when going to the market), you will believe, they only need to ask for a reduction like the ones here, but they do not, they pay what you ask them and if they think it’s expensive they go elsewhere and you lose the customer,” she said.

The Historical Center of Mérida was decreed under the legal term of Historical Monuments Zone, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on October 18, 1982.

It is considered the Historical Center with the second largest extension in the country, with an area of 8,795 km2 comprising 3,906 buildings with historical value built between the 16th and 19th centuries and 633 buildings declared Historic Monuments.

According to data from the subdivision of Economic Development, nowadays in this area are located about 19,950 properties, including those cataloged by the National Institute of Anthropology and History as Historical Monuments.

Among the land uses in this area are 13 cellars, 96 meeting centers, 4,712 shops, 131 for private education, 66 for public education, 66 for cultural use, 21 for events, and 19 for private recreational use.

Other land uses include: 187 parking lots, 181 government buildings, 400 for industry and seven for infrastructure, as well as 225 offices, 470 for the private health sector, 8 for the public health sector, 3,049 for service, 15 churches, 21 parks and 10,294 for housing and different uses.