MEXICO CITY - Some cruise ship companies are canceling stops in the Mexican Pacific port of Mazatlán, and others are considering it due to crime against tourists.
Disney Wonder has dropped calls to Mazatlán from its seven-night Mexican Riviera tour and replaced them with an additional stop in Cabo San Lucas on the Baja California peninsula.
"Safety is very important to us, and we believe this change is necessary to provide the best family vacation experience for our guests," company spokeswoman Christi Erwin Donnan said in an e-mail Wednesday.
Holland America Line replaced a Jan. 26 Mazatlán port call with one in the Pacific port of Manzanillo.
"The revision to the itinerary was made in response to recent incidents of violence in Mazatlán," the company said in a statement.
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Carnival Cruise spokes-man Tim Gallagher said the company is deciding whether its ship the Spirit will make a stop in Mazatlán next Wednesday.
He said there will be a meeting between cruise line security people and Mazatlán authorities next week about recent crimes against cruise tourists in Mazatlán.
"There have been some recent security incidents that have made cruise lines concerned about the safety of their guests," Gallagher said.
Cruise line officials did not provide details on the crime or saying whether its passengers had been the target.
A person who answered the phone at the Mazatlán port authority office said nobody was available for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Mazatlán officials had touted Disney's decision last year to resume stops at the port as a sign of growing confidence in the city. The Disney Wonder had planned 27 port calls in Mazatlán in 2011, according to the Mazatlán port authority website.
Mazatlán has continued to thrive as a tourist destination despite drug-gang violence in other parts of Sinaloa state, where it is located. The state is the cradle of several of Mexican cartels and has one of the highest homicides rates in the country.
Seatrade Insider, an industry magazine, quoted Mazatlán Port Director Alfonso Gil Diaz as saying the incidents causing concern were minor, such as one passenger whose necklace was snatched.
"Mazatlán is very, very safe," the magazine quoted Gil Diaz as saying. "It's a shame, because last year we had 526,000 passengers with no incidents. . . . This year there were three very minor things outside the terminal."
Mexico's all-important tourism industry has been surprisingly resilient in the face of drug-gang violence that has claimed nearly 35,000 lives in the past four years. Tourism revenue was up 7.1 percent in the first 10 months of 2010, compared to the same months of 2009, with visitors spending $9.8 billion, according to the Mexican Tourism Ministry.
