Post date: Mar 09, 2012 8:31:8 PM
ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO (MARCH 08, 2012) (REUTERS) - Normally thronged with scores of partying spring breakers, miles of golden beaches in Mexico's Acapulco are empty. A traditional hotspot for rowdy American college students on vacation, many are steering away from the famed shores as the country's bloody drug war closes in on the popular tourist destination, threatening the travel industry.
Mexican drug cartel violence scares off thousands of American college students from Acapulco's iconic beaches during the lucrative Spring Break season.
Hotels are reporting sluggish trade and many restaurants and bars heavily dependent on American tourism are facing ruin as the Pacific city's infamy for violence grows. Acapulco's annual hotel occupancy rates sank to 44 percent in for first nine months of 2011, a drop of 4.5 percentage points on the same period last year and down from 55 percent in 2006.
With 2012 expected to be another slow year for the local tourist industry, many residents long for Acapulco's heyday of packed bars and beaches.
"Since the beginning of the year they have not returned here because they have gone to other areas, not Acapulco. What we want is an Acapulco that is full (of tourists) but with this Acapulco we are seeing, it is very bad now," said local, Epifanio Ramirez.
Not helping the situation, earlier this week the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a safety warning against travel to Acapulco citing drug violence and the unpredictable nature of cartel attacks in the area.
Counting the costs, hotels along the iconic Pacific coast are not expecting their annual swarm of American college students for the lucrative Spring Break season.
"No, we don't have Spring Breakers this year. There are some that have arrived but we're not anticipating much work because we're off-season but I promise that 2013 will be a good year for Spring Breakers," said General Director of Empire Suites Hotel in Acapulco, Sergio Salmeron.
Last year killings in Acapulco tripled to nearly 9000, making the region one of the most violent cities in the world and the second-deadliest in the country.
Violence in the area began to intensify after the killing in December 2009 of Arturo Beltran Leyva, the head of the cartel that had traditionally dominated the port city. A scramble for power ensued and Guerrero's state government says it has now identified 17 different cartels working in the city, roughly one per district.
Battling to salvage its crumbling tourist trade, tourist authorities have gone on a public relations offensive to assure international visitors that the region is still safe. Mexican President Felipe Calderon also launched an ambitious security operation called "Safe Guerrero" which has seen some success. During the first month of the operation the number of homicides in Acapulco fell by some 42 percent on the month, according to local authorities.
Despite the measures tourists continue to stay away. Today most visitors to Acapulco are Mexicans looking for a budget holiday, but its name is still talismanic for the whole tourism industry, which accounts for some 9 percent of the national economy and 70 percent of output in Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states.
As it batters tourism to Acapulco, the violence is also eating away at Cancun. The number of murders in Quintana Roo, home state of the Caribbean beach resort, almost doubled in the five years to 2010. Average monthly hotel occupancy rates in the Cancun-Puerto Morelos region have also fallen since 2007.
Acapulco was made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis in the 1950s and 60s however, some tourist officials admit the Pacific city's new reputation for gangland decapitations, kidnappings and extortion will be a difficult one to shake off.