Much of Baja California Travel Problems is Press Hype

Dear Baja Friends:
Below is an e-mail reply from Ron Raposa, Public Relations, Rosarito Beach, to a recent query re the article “Tourists Shun Crime-Hit Mexico Beaches”. This response can be applied to questions regarding any of the recently published negative articles.
Please feel free to share this with anyone voicing the same concerns.
We will be sending out dates and times of media interviews with Mayor Hugo Torres as well as any media releases.
Regards, Anne Hines

"From: ronraposa@hotmail.com Subject: RE: Tourists Shun Crime-Hit Mexico BeachesDate: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:46:01 +0000 Dear ......:
Thanks for conveying your concern. The story presents a very unrealistic perspective of the danger to visitors to this area. If you read it closely, you'll see that it refers to a handful of crimes that occurred in Baja over a several-month period, none of them in Rosarito. The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana had less than 200 complaints of any sort in all of 2007 from the millions of U.S. citizens who visited Baja that year. Even if some incidents were unreported, which is likely, it still is a very low number, lower than many if not most places in the U.S. Overall tourism to Baja in 2007 was down less than 3 percent. Security concerns figure in the decline, but it also can be attributed to a slow U.S. economy and high gas prices. The Rosarito Beach Hotel was at full occupancy on New Year's weekend. All this is not to say that Baja officials are unconcerned with the crimes that have occurred. People who come here are our guests and we want them to have a safe and pleasant visit. Being a crime victim is a horrible thing, and it is more unsettling when it happens in a foreign country. We fully realize this. Rosarito's new Mayor Hugo Torres, who also owns the Rosarito Beach Hotel, has made improving safety and procedures for visitors to report incidents a top priority. Baja state officials also are taking similar actions. In the near future, we will be doing a series of media conferences and releases to correct the misleading impression that the story you mentioned and a few others have created. Also, please contact me personally if you need further information. As well as being a city spokesman, I also am one of about 14,000 U.S. citizens living in Rosarito