What comes to mind when you see the word “Mexico”?

1. Drugs? Partying? Politics?

2. How about whale watching? Gourmet food? Safe beaches?

Chances are that you pictured the first line before the second line. These days, the media is giving Americans a terrible idea of Mexico. Here is an excerpt from Cheryl Butner’s and my post:

“Tourism in [Mexico] is actually really interesting. With the American tourists being scared away for several years now because of what our media is telling them, there have been the obvious really bad consequences, like any businesses related to tourism are struggling to stay open, if they haven’t closed already. But there has been a positive side to this too, in my opinion. As an example, I’ve been going to Tijuana for over 20 years. Before all the drug wars in Mexico and economy crashing in the US, it was pretty much like you would see in the movies, a lot of gringos going down there to drink, party, pick up prostitutes, get drugs (legal and illegal), and little kids on the streets begging for money. Now that the American tourists are pretty much gone, Tijuana has really cleaned up and is actually starting to be known as a cultural and food capital. Many newspapers, blogs, etc. have written about how Tijuana is a new gourmet food destination and even some of the shows on the Food Network and Travel Channel have featured Tijuana. Plus the economy in other parts of Mexico (particularly in the big cities) was not as hard-hit as the US was, so the numbers of Mexicans traveling and vacationing in their own country is way up, which is really great. So you see some of this in the Upper Gulf towns as well, especially with more Mexicans vacationing there now than there used to be. Hopefully the number of Mexican tourists will continue to grow to help make up for the drastically reduced numbers of American tourists, which will probably stay really low for a long time.

All of this makes me wonder if, in cities like Tijuana anyway, the American tourists had more of a negative influence than a positive one. Hopefully after Mexico gets control over the drug problems and is able to overcome this unwarranted stigma of being a dangerous country, it will be able to reinvent its image and get away from being known by Americans as a wild party destination, because the country has so many diverse and incredible experiences to offer tourists. It’s already starting in Tijuana, so hopefully the positive changes will continue.”

I am trying to start a new campaign to get more tourists to view Mexico as the pristine, calm food and animal paradise that it has become, as opposed to the drug-filled war field that our media makes it out to be.

If tourism can go up in Mexico, many more successful businesses can be run, giving less need for gillnet fishing in the Gulf of California. If we want to save the Vaquita, there needs to be incentive for the fishermen to stop fishing, and this is the best incentive there is.

It’s time to #ChangeOurPerception.