Sixty-seven percent of Americans stay away from Mexico because of the country’s climate of violence, according to survey results published in capital daily El Universal.

 

The study, “Reasons for Not Visiting Mexico,” was carried out with a sample of 4,000 U.S. and Canadian citizens, and shows that rejection is strongest in Canada, where 81 percent of those polled would rather skip visiting Mexico because of the violence.

 

El Universal has a list of almost 2,700 gangland slayings in Mexico so far this year, bringing the total since December 2006 to almost 19,000.

 

The survey was conducted last year by the country’s tourism ministry. Tourism is Mexico’s third largest source of revenues after oil exports and remittances.

 

Though drug trafficking is present in those areas, the levels of violence are not nearly as high as in northern border states.