Mexican Tourism Campaign to Combat Violent Reputation

A group in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, is launching a campaign about safety in the border city in hopes of sparking more tourism. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that members of Love Jrz, a nonprofit, non-governmental association based in Ciudad Juarez, are also highlighting recreation and tourism opportunities, AP reported. In 2011, the city recorded 1,500 homicides widely blamed on violence between rival drug cartels. That number dropped to 269 in 2015. But Ciudad Juarez has not experienced a rise in tourism concurrent with the drop in violence. The group has launched a Facebook page and is working on an interactive kiosk and mobile app. The kiosks will be placed in hotels, convention centers, airports and other locations to allow tourists to explore entertainment possibilities. The jury is out on whether or not this will work. As Skift's Dan Peltier notes, "Try as it might, Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border towns will be hard-pressed to reignite tourism in the near term given the rhetoric coming from the White House and calls for a border wall."