ANA LUZ SOLIS
According to How Safe is Mexico a web site operated and consulted by Americans Guanajuato, along with 12 other Mexican states, is considered very safe for travelers.
Comparatively, the United States government continuously updates its Travel Ad- visory web site, issuing travel alerts or warnings as a means to inform American citizens of potentially unsafe destinations and to provide other precautionary guidelines that should be taken into consideration when planning a trip.
The list includes “Red Flag” areas, classed as such by the Department of State on account of acts of violence or crime taking place in these re- gions. One of the last updates concerning Mexico was published on January 9, 2014, in which the three Yucatán Peninsula states received the “No advisory is in effect” stamp.
How Safe is Mexico is a project led by Black Label Interactive, which of- fers marketing services to travel agencies and luxury brands across the continents. Through this venture, Black Label seeks to provide solid data with regard to security for the purpose of informing people about the real situa- tion in Mexico, based on information gathered from a variety of sources, including USA Today, RRS y Asociados-Prominix, the F.B.I. and the U.S. State Department, to name a few.
As maintained by this web site, in 2013, Mexico was the primary destination for citi- zens north of the border, and based on recent statistics, 15 million Americans (approximately 15,000 per day) traveled to Mexico during that period.
Similarly, the site underlines the effects of sensationalist coverage by the media, who print exaggerated stories of the violence in Mexico, when in fact the country is much safer than many major cities in the United States, like Mi- ami, New Orleans, Philadel- phia, Washington or Chicago.
The Mexican regions included on the safe list are: Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, Queré- taro, Baja California Sur and Guanajuato.
