Mexican government forces on Sunday killed the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes – better known as “El Mencho.”
The operation briefly sparked violence in parts of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, raising concerns among some U.S. travelers about safety and upcoming trips to Mexico.
But travel industry experts say tourists should take a measured approach.
Jenn Lee, president and CMO of Maitland-based Travel Planners International, says travelers should make informed decisions rather than react to headlines.
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“No one should ever tell you what is safe and not safe. That’s up to you as a consumer to make that decision,” Lee said. “What we will say is it’s important to understand the facts of what is actually happening.”
Lee emphasized that Mexico is a large country with diverse regions, much like the United States.
“Mexico is a huge country with 32 different [states], very much like how we are here in the United States,” Lee said. “Right now, we have friends and travel advisors and customers that are in the affected area. And they said everything has gone back to normal.”
She noted that Jalisco is located on Mexico’s western side, while many popular tourist destinations for Central Florida travelers, including Cancun and Cozumel, are on the eastern side of the country.
But, what about cruises?
Another concern for some travelers: cruises departing from Florida ports with stops in Mexico. Cruise expert Stewart Chiron says cruise passengers generally have built-in flexibility.
“The good thing about cruise vacations is that it’s not dependent on an actual destination,” Chiron said. “If there are geopolitical issues, if there’s unrest, if there’s violence, the cruise lines can – as floating resorts – go to different ports or extend visits to others.”
In other words, itineraries can be adjusted if necessary.
So, what’s the bottom line
For now, both Lee and Chiron say the worst of the violence appears to be over. Still, experts recommend travelers take precautions:
- Continue monitoring developments in Mexico
- Sign up for U.S. State Department travel alerts
- Purchase travel insurance that covers cancellations or emergency evacuations
As always, experts say staying informed, not alarmed, is the best travel strategy.
By the way, when we popped up to Maitland to interview Jenn Lee, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Travel Planners International, we only had a couple of soundbites from Jenn in our on-air package and at the top of the web story. We interviewed Stewart via Zoom, and we only used a couple of quotes from him as well.
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Both Jenn and Stewart had some really interesting points that were very insightful. Here are edited transcripts of each interview:
Stewart Chiron Transcript
WKMG-TV: Stewart, we talked about this real briefly about cruises to Mexico and there’s kind of this East Coast, West Coast and the idea of cruise lines aren’t really going to put themselves and their equipment in danger. So in about a sentence and a half, can you sum it up for me?
Stewart Chiron: Yeah, the good thing about cruise vacations is that it’s not dependent on an actual destination, meaning if there is geopolitical issues, if there’s unrest, there’s violence, the cruise lines can, as they’re floating resorts, they can go to different ports or extend visits to others.
They’re not stationary. So, if there are issues like we’re seeing right now in Puerto Vallarta, they, don’t go to Puerto Vallarta. They’re not going to jeopardize the passengers or the ships by going to destinations that may be at risk. What they’ll do is they’ll go to other ports.
Same thing can happen on the East coast ports as well, which would certainly impact cruises out of Florida, for example. And it’s just like weather – the cruise lines have risk assessments of the different ports and the itineraries and they can move their ships to other ports to other regions in order to avoid these negative issues.
WKMG-TV: And how about East Coast cruises? Is there anything going on with the East Coast Cruises or is it just business as usual?
Stewart Chiron: So right now, business as usual on the cruises departing from, let’s say, Florida, for example, and Texas heading to the eastern parts of Mexico. But as always, it’s always being reviewed. The risk assessment teams are assessing what goes on in the ports to determine whether or not it’s safe. And if it’s not, they won’t go there.
WKMG-TV: Last question, if you say, had a cruise and you wanted to change your itinerary or something like that, do you – can you work with the cruise line? If you don’t feel safe going to Mexico – what’s your advice on something like this?
Stewart Chiron: One, it’s always a good idea to have trip cancelation insurance, but keep in mind the reasons to cancel, usually aren’t for any reason. They’re for medical. So, the cruise lines are going to… sail to these destinations. They’re going to avoid the ports that have issues. And if they do go to Mexico, let’s say you’re going to Cozumel as an example and you feel unsafe. You can stay on board the ship and enjoy your cruise.
WKMG-TV: Yeah, and that’s an interesting thing. You can go to Mexico, but really never step foot in Mexico, right?
Stewart Chiron: The cruise lines are not going to jeopardize the ships or the passenger safety. If you’re uncomfortable about a port you visit, and I’ve done this many times where instead of getting off the ship I just stayed aboard. The ships are operating the restaurants, the food, the spas, the pools. You can go and continue to enjoy your vacation and not have to worry about what’s going on ashore.
Jenn Lee Transcript
WKMG-TV: There have been problems in Mexico with the killing of a cartel leader, and there’s been unrest in Mexico. As someone in the travel business, is it safe to go to Mexico?
Jenn Lee: In the travel business, no one should ever tell you what is safe and not safe. That’s up to you as a consumer to make that decision. What we will say is it’s important to understand the facts of what is actually happening. So this started back on the 22nd – it’s done. It’s over with. It was in a very small portion of Mexico.
Mexico is a huge country with 32 different [states], very much like how we are here in the United States. So right now, we have friends and travel advisors and customers that are in the affected area. And they said everything has gone back to normal. It was a very short period of time.
When you travel to anywhere you want to heed warnings from your travel advisor, they are the ones that actually are talking to the destination management companies on the ground. They’re the ones who have contacts with the hotels and resorts and the cruise lines and all of that. None of these travel partners are going to put anybody in harm’s way.
So going there, yes, it is perfectly fine, relatively speaking, to any place that you travel. So we try not to use the word safe. We have to say pay attention to the government, listings, the.gov website – rely on reliable news sources and contact a travel advisor.
WKMG-TV: You talked about Mexico as a big country. This problem was on the west coast of Mexico, correct? Most of our cruises or even our travel like Cancun and Cozumel, that’s East Coast. Can you kind of compare it in distance with somewhere in the United States, like if something was wrong in one place, it really doesn’t affect another?
Jenn Lee: If there was something going on in Florida, you wouldn’t be contacting people in Oklahoma to see how things are going. [Cancun and Cozumel are] in different time zones than the west coast of Mexico. So it’s two time-zone different. So it’s not comparing apples to apples.
WKMG-TV: So that really gives you an idea of how far away these are from each other. Yeah. You have people on the ground in Puerto Vallarta.
Jenn Lee: Correct.
WKMG-TV: What did that person tell you?
Jenn Lee: So they took a video. They are in a condo. They are on the 26th floor of their condo. And about six blocks away, there was a car on fire. And on the other side, there was another fire that was going on. It only lasted for about a day, where there was some sort of unrest, and they sheltered in place and it’s back to normal.
It’s absolutely back to normal. Restaurants are open, people are walking the streets. Everything is back to normal. It was a very short incident. And this is the other thing that happens. You know, travel advisors are very well aware of what’s going on. What’s happening is people are reposting videos from Sunday, right from four and five days ago.
They’re reposting those videos and I you can make a video, you can create a video about anything. And so there’s a lot of incorrect information because people want to scare people or they like to get attention and gain attention with it, but they’re reposting stuff that’s no longer valid.
WKMG-TV: No longer valid or never.
Jenn Lee: True, never true.
WKMG-TV: You’re not the first person to say I’ve seen a video of things that simply did not happen.
Jenn Lee: Correct. Right there in Puerto Vallarta. Our friend who is a travel advisor, he owns a travel agency with us. He said that there were videos of his neighborhood there were absolutely 100% not true. And so I, unfortunately, AI is a really great tool. But this is the reason why people rely on travel advisors, because we actually know what’s going on, because we’re talking firsthand to our contacts there.
So you can’t just rely on what you’re seeing online.
WKMG-TV: To kind of wrap this up, I feel like we’re going backwards, that it’s better to rely on people talking one to one, face to face, than finding somebody or something on your phone. Did you ever think it was going to get this way? Did you predict this say, ten years ago when you’re in this business?
Jenn Lee: Also, listen, when the online travel agencies came on board the Expedia’s, the Pricelines, the Kayaks, and when they came on board, everyone thought travel advisors would no longer exist. That just did not happen. Yes, there was a blip that everyone said, great, I can just book my hotel. Yeah, if you just want to go to Knoxville, Tennessee and book a hotel, you can do that online with Hilton, Hyatt, whomever.
But what people are finding is and even the online travel agencies are saying still to this day: people want to rely on another human to give them a review, a referral and confirm what they’re seeing online. Because, guys, we just don’t trust what we see online any longer. We just don’t.