Mexico’s not looking so great right now
TEXT OF STORY
Bill Radke: The swine flu outbreak is another cruel blow to Brand Mexico. A country dependent on tourism is trying to overcome a murderous drug trade and now a potential deadly pandemic. From the Americas Desk at WLRN, Marketplace’s Dan Grech reports.
Dan Grech: Mexico is desperate to improve its image among foreign travelers. But spinning drug gangs is a piece of cake compared to explaining away an outbreak of swine flu.
Kevin McCauley covers the public relations business for O’DwyerPR.com:
Kevin McCauley: Swine flu is mysterious, it’s insidious. It’s a very different problem. Hard, almost impossible to deal with.
McCauley says because Mexico so interlocked with the U.S., Mexico faces a bigger challenge than did Asia during the SARS epidemic of 2003.
McCauley: First thing they have to do is to reassure people in United States that the swine flu situation is being aggressively taken care of. And there has to be then a period of six months where there are no more outbreaks. And then we can start talking about travel to Mexico.
Mexico is in the process of hiring a U.S. PR firm to help spread that message.
I’m Dan Grech for Marketplace.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
