SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Tourism officials in Tijuana report the number of visitors to the city is “substantially lower” compared to last year.
Karim Chalita Rodríguez, president of the city’s Tourism and Conventions Committee, told reporters Thursday that since the start of the year, medical tourism is down by 50% while restaurants are seeing 45% fewer American visitors translating into a 30% loss in profits.
“Americans can’t afford to buy as much these days,” said Rodríguez referring to the weaker dollar versus the Mexican peso. “People don’t want to wait in line for three hours to cross the border, sometimes in both directions.”
Rodríguez also blames security concerns many Americans have after hearing recent news reports of violence targeting foreigners, such as the murders of the two Australian surfers and their friend from San Diego.
“The first part of this year also had a lot of bad weather that didn’t do us any favors, but now that the rain is gone, and the sun is starting to come out, we expect more people to visit.”
And Rodríguez hopes the U.S. doesn’t go through an economic recession that some are predicting as it would negatively impact businesses south of the border.
“We need to keep offering quality products, services, meals and tourist destinations to our visitors,” he said, “This is the best form of promotion we can have, it will help increase the number of visits to our region.”
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