TIJUANA, Mexico, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Some travelers say they are avoiding some areas of Mexico as gun battles between drug traffickers and the military approach the level of "small-unit combat."
Particularly high on the tourism blacklist are Mexican border towns such as Juarez, Tijuana and Rosarito Beach in Baja California, while experts say the country's major tourist destinations remain safe, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.
With a recent travel warning from the U.S. State Department saying that "some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have taken on the characteristics of small-unit combat," Mexican tourism is reportedly down.
"I live about 20 miles from Tijuana, and I haven't been (there) for over a year," San Diego travel brochure writer Maribeth Mellin told the Chronicle. "When I write about San Diego and Mexico, I no longer include information about Tijuana. Now I don't even recommend daylight trips there."
More than 5,600 people in Mexico died from drug-related violence. The State Department declined to give numbers of U.S. crime victims in Mexico, but did reveal that "rates for robberies, homicides, petty thefts and carjackings have all increased over the last year across Mexico generally, with notable spikes in Tijuana and northern Baja California."
