With the increasing concern of the drug violence spilling over to Arizona, tourists are expressing concerns about coming to Arizona.
In the past few months, the Phoenix Police Department has received calls from concerned tourists asking whether it’s safe to visit Arizona, but the chances they will become victims of drug violence or kidnapping are slim, spokesman Sgt. James Holmes said.
“What people who don’t live here don’t understand is that those kidnappings clearly involve people who are involved otherwise in some type of organized or gang-related activity,” Holmes said. “Those who have not been involved with drug trade or human smuggling are not under any type of threat to be kidnapped or experiencing violence.”
Holmes assured tourists that citizens in Arizona “do not actually physically witness this type of violence.”
He said people who do not live in Arizona are getting a bad image of the state because of the increasing drug and kidnapping violence.
Scott Dunn, spokesman for Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he thinks the media has been exaggerating the kidnapping and drug-cartel issues in Arizona.
“This is a very sensationalized story,” he said. “These are criminal matters and not something tourists should be afraid of.”
Dunn said tourists should not fear coming to Arizona.
“If you’re coming here to get a tan, see a ball game or just have a relaxing break in the sun, then you should not worry,” Dunn said. “The criminal activities should be no concern to tourists.”
According to Tijuana’s Tourism and Conventions Bureau, tourism in Tijuana has dropped 80 percent in the last few months. Dunn said Arizona’s tourism may drop in coming months because of drug and kidnapping violence.
“We don’t want our image in the Valley of the Sun being tarnished by anything,” he said.
Julie Murphy Erfani, a political science professor in the division of social and behavioral sciences, said the identification of Phoenix as the kidnapping capital of the U.S in the national and international press negatively impacts Arizona’s image.
“The Phoenix-metro area has seen a marked increase in home invasions and kidnapping, much of which is confined to drug-traffickers engaged in feuds, retaliations and vendettas,” Erfani said.
Erfani has been writing about crime and violence in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands since 2007. She just finished a book called “Crime and Violence in the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands,” will be published this summer.
The drug-cartel violence has escalated in the past two years since Mexico President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug-trafficking organizations. But Erfani said Arizona’s concern for this issue has increased only recently.
“Drug-trafficking violence is getting more attention in Arizona lately, in part, because U.S. government agencies grew concerned about the escalation of the arms race going on between the [drug-trafficking organizations],” Erfani said.
In particular, the arms race has shifted to a deadly
increase in acquisition and deployment of military-grade weaponry, Erfani said.
Erfani said the people who should be concerned are the families of the traffickers.
“I do not think that tourists should be overly concerned given that the kidnappings are largely confined to drug traffickers and their families,” she said.
Mechanical engineering junior Marco Robles said drug violence in Arizona is giving both the state and the Mexican community a bad image.
“People are getting a bad perception of the Mexican community through the media because of a few bad apples,” Robles said.
Reach the reporter at griselda.nevarez@asu.edu.
