Tourist spots in turmoil: not really

New items: a gigantic oil plume is leaking from BP’s underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico and fouling everything in its path, including the beaches along Florida’s Panhandle. More: terrified tourists are avoiding Mexico because of drug-related violence. Still more: Bangkok has descended into chaos as thousands of protestors rebelled against the military regime, leading to the deaths of 50 people.
 

Skeptical readers of news these days have read or heard more about that but as Mark Twain said about reports of his premature demise, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
In these times of Internet news and flagrant gossip, it’s often difficult to determine the real facts. And while the world has problems, there are facts about travel situations that often contradict the common conceptions.
 

The BP oil spill, for example, is still leaking but there are only limited reports of beach damage, at least so far, and it’s business as usual for most beach-seeking tourists in The Sunshine State.
 

“Chris Thompson, chief executive of Visit Florida, notes that Florida has 825 miles of beaches and a certain small portion of that is being affected at the extreme western portion of the Panhandle,” says CNN News. So there’s still plenty of clean beaches to go around.
 

In Mexico, drug violence has killed thousands of Mexicans since Felipe Calderon became president in 2006. The US government has issued travel warnings to a half-dozen border cities forming the nucleus of this conflict, including Ciudad Juarez, with more than 5,000 murders since 2008.
 

But travel experts want to remind tourists that Mexico is a big country — bigger than its border.
David Lytle, editorial director of Frommers.com, says that avoiding Mexico because of drug violence "is like saying don’t go to the US because there are troubles in a city there." Destinations further south, like Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Isla Mujeres on the Yucatan peninsula, are safer.
 

In Thailand, riots have led to tourism boycotts. Bangkok did descend into chaos in May as thousands of protestors rebelled against the military regime, taking over parts of the city and torching 30 buildings in the city center. In all, about 50 people were killed and 400 injured.
 

All these areas have suffered financial losses.
 

The Thailand area took an estimated financial hit of up to US$1.35 billion in lost tourist bookings.
 

But CNN reports that the unrest there is over, at least for now.
 

"The security situation in Bangkok has become more stable, and life is beginning to return to normal," reads a post on Lonelyplanet.com.
 

“The reality: Bangkok is still available for the intrepid traveler, as well as other tourist hot spots, like Phuket, a party beach paradise in the south, and Chiang Mai, a northern Mecca for jungle trekking with elephants,” says CNN.
 

There are many other similar examples.
 

Still, the U.S. government advises that travelers "remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and avoid crowds and demonstrations" in certain areas such as Greece and Thailand.

But that’s a description that could cover a lot of countries.
 

Ask me. I’m an American who was in Cuba at a time when protesters were loudly demonstrating against “evil imperial America.” But none of that wrath was directed towards me, who was welcomed everywhere as a good money-spending visitor.
 

So tourists, know this: don’t believe everything you read or hear.
 

By David Wilkening