Agents’ Mexico Sales Still Ailing After Texas Advisory
by Dori SaltzmanTravel agency bookings to Mexico have dropped and customer fears increased in the wake of a March 1 Texas advisory urging spring breakers to avoid all travel to Mexico, according to agents.
Most agents were already experiencing lower than usual Mexico business, due to client concerns about border town violence. The Texas Department of Public Safety advisory, which warned about drug cartel violence, only triggered more alarm, hurting sales further.
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“The moment it came out, the number of questions about Mexico safety increased,” said Terry Denton, president of Travel Leaders / Main Street Travel in Fort Worth, Texas.
Travel agent Cathy Endsley agreed. “Clients hear, ‘Don’t travel to Mexico’ and bang!” – bookings drop off, said Endsley of Infinity Travel Management, an American Express Travel Representative in Houston.
Some hurting more than others
At Cruise & Travel Masters in Salt Lake City, Mexico sales have dropped a whopping 75%, owner Toby Nash told Travel Market Report.
Denton said his Mexico traffic is down about 12% this year. He noted that the downward trend began before the Texas warning. “I wouldn’t say the announcement changed things dramatically, other than raising a few more doubts,” said Denton.
Denton and Endsley spoke to Travel Market Report during a Funjet 500 Club meeting for top-producing agents held this week at the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo on the Riviera Maya.
‘Rally to reality’
Funjet themed the meeting “Rally to Reality” and hosted a panel discussion on the safety of Mexico and how to counter client concerns.
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“This isn’t just a Texas problem,” Mike Going, president of Funjet Vacations, told an audience of around 215 agents. “The headline we’re dealing with is ‘Texas official deems travel to Mexico unsafe.’”
Going accused the media of sensationalizing the safety issue and spreading false information. “The amount of misinformation out there is staggering.”
One travel agent attending the panel presentation said with embarrassment that she’d heard on the news that drug cartels owned all the discos in Cancun. The myth was dispelled quickly by Rodrigo de la Pena, president of the Cancun Hotel Association.
Spring break not typical
The Texas warning was addressed to spring breakers, and Going pointed out that spring breakers are not a fair representation of all travelers. Nor is spring break crime isolated to Mexico. Many popular spring break destinations, even in the U.S., see drug-related and petty crime go up during spring break, Going said.
Panel member Denton agreed. “Spring breakers carry a certain amount of their problems with them,” he said.
Denton told the audience that the Department of Public Safety warning may in fact have been politically motivated. The Texas border areas are prone to violence, and the Texas government has been trying to get President Obama to act. The warning may have been an effort to force his hand, Denton said.
Geographically challenged
The fear many Americans feel about traveling to Mexico is fueled by their limited grasp on geography. Even the Texas authorities who issued the safety warning weren’t clear on distances between border areas and tourist resorts, said Javier Aranda, executive director of partnerships for the Mexico Tourism Board.
Aranda told agents that when he showed top Texas officials a map and pointed out the distances between areas affected by violence and resort areas, many of the officials were surprised.
Agents also confront confusion about geography in clients. “Clients don’t realize the distances involved,” said Infinity Travel Management’s Endsley.
Easing client fears
Education helps. “Some clients are a bit more freaked out than others, but after I explain how far away the border towns are, they seem to calm down,” said Linda Cahill, CEO of Travel by Land or Sea, a Cruise Planners agency in Tamarac, Fla.
Diane Darcy, owner of Affordable Trips and Tours in Fort Worth, told Travel Market Report that she explains to clients that Mexico’s tourist areas are about the same distance from the border towns as Miami is from New York. “That generally shocks them, and then they are good to go.”
Positive report
So far, Affordable Trips and Tours has bucked the downward trend in Mexico sales, said Darcy. The only exception was one client who chose Jamaica over Mexico because of safety concerns
“To date I have $86,000 in Mexico sales versus only $32,000 for January to April last year.” Most of her clients, she said, are repeat clients who already know the destination is safe.
Next week: Tips on how to respond to clients’ safety concerns.
