(Photo: Spring breakers on Rosarito’s main tourist drag. Amy Isackson/KPBS )
Tourism officials in Baja California have been holding their breath as this Spring's tourist season gets underway. They're banking on this season to resuscitate the state's flagging tourism economy. Reports of violence, a weak U.S. dollar, and long border waits have drained out some of the air. As KPBS Border Reporter Amy Isackson explains, the beach town of Rosarito, just south of Tijuana, has been particularly hard hit.
On Rosarito's main drag, t-shirts, hats and refrigerator magnets line the shelves of Janet Hernandez's souvenir shop.
Hernandez: It's mainly so people can take something back that says Rosarito -- just some kind of souvenir.
The gleaming white tiled store is sandwiched between bars with big outdoor patios, restaurants advertising lobster deals and other shops that sell trinkets for tourists. But about the only merchandise moving at Hernandez's store were the Mexican jumping beans next to the cash register.
Hernandez: This was the worst year in all the years. And I hope this summer or starting next week, things will get better. Otherwise, it might come to the point that I have to close this store, because it is just too difficult. I can't keep taking out of my savings to support a store.
Hernandez recently shut another shop she owned next door after 19 years in business.
Business owners in Rosarito estimate their sales up until the start of this spring's tourist season were down about 50-percent compared to last year. And 2007 wasn't especially strong, to begin with.
About a million and a half fewer tourists visited Baja California compared to 2006. That's a big hit for Rosarito where 70-percent of jobs are tied to tourism.
Long border waits at the world's busiest land border and the economic downturn in the United States may be keeping people away. Also, visitors are worried about crime and corrupt cops.
Hernandez says she heard complaints all last summer.
Hernandez: I had so many complaints in here in the summer. I wish I had someone to listen to all of these complaints. You know, it was terrible. Police after police after police stopping people for money. They even stopped me. And then the next day he came and he said to the girl who works with me, "I stopped the lady. And since I stopped her, she said I could come in the store and get anything I want. And the girl said, you better come back when she's here. He never came back.
On top of the extortion complaints, there were also there were three serious attacks on tourists in Tijuana and Ensenada last fall. That's unusual. Most violence in Baja California stems from Mexico's war on drug cartels.
It's dramatic. But, tourists are rarely targeted. And the shootouts typically don't happen in tourist areas. Nevertheless, Baja California tourism officials worry visitors don't know the difference. They see the headlines and think it'll happen to them.
Rosarito Mayor Hugo Torres expresses the sentiment of many local and state officials when he says the U-S media has fueled people's fears by repeating border crime stories ad nauseum.
Torres: They have covered the facts. But they have overly displayed them on the front pages. It should come out. It should be told. It should be told in a positive manner because we are doing something. We are not sitting down or ignoring crime is going on.
Indeed, law enforcement throughout the border region has recently scored some major hits against organized crime. Also, police say extortion complaints have plummeted since tourist police who speak English and federal agents have been deployed to help out.
It's too soon to say if it's working. But there are some encouraging signs.Baja California's Secretary of Tourism announced earlier this week that visitor numbers for the first three weeks of Spring Break were about as high as last year. And he says, on average, each visitor spent seven-dollars more than in 2007.
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Shelby Young and Rider Piper from Arizona spent Spring Break in Rosarito. Amy Isackson/KPBS
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At an open air restaurant called Macho Taco on Rosarito's main street, Shelby Young and Ryder Piper are bellied up to the bar.
They've come from Arizona for four nights.
Ryder: Do you want a beer?
Shelby: Sure.
Ryder: Can we have two beers?
Shelby's in a bikini. Ryder's wearing trunks. Ryder says they heard about violence in the border region before they came.
Ryder: My dad was watching the news and he was seeing, like, kidnappings done by people who were dressed up as police officers and stuff. And it just seemed pretty unsafe.
Isackson: And how come you decided to come after hearing that?
Ryder: Cause it is Spring Break. Just try and stick together as much as we can.
Shelby: There's dangers everywhere you go. You can't just stay at home.
That's the message Baja California tourism officials hope to communicate.
They recently hired a crisis management firm to launch a half-million dollar PR campaign to help resurrect the state's image.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
