march 16 2010151 in the wake of us travel advisories warning tourists about violence at the mexican border business owners in the mexican town of rocky point find themselves fighting to attract american tourists rocky point mexico known locally as puerto penasco is about 60 miles from the arizona border and is usually a popular springbreak destination for college students because of its affordable prices and its beaches on the gulf of california for some the legal drinking age of 18 is an appeal as well but last year left rocky points economy in shambles with the threats of swine flu and drug cartel violence as well as the imposition of regulations requiring that international travelers have a valid passport in order to reenter the us businesses in rocky point lost nearcrippling numbers of visitors guillermo parra the owner of a rocky point bar called dugout said hes had to make some major changes because business has declined by 6070 percent since last year he now relies on local returning visitors to stay afloat i had to cut three employees he said i have to work as well as my daughter last year was dramatic said oscar palacio owner of the coastal resort playa bonita people are afraid to come to rocky point because of what they hear of mexico palacio said that around this time playa bonita is usually 75 percent booked for spring break but right now his resort is only about 50 percent booked he recently met with other local business owners to discuss the state of their tourist industry so far rocky point is doing slightly better than last year palacio said according to palacio rocky point had 867300 mexican visitors and 1680000 us tourists in 2008 in2009 the number of mexican visitors rose to 940000 and the number of us tourists dropped to 1140000 palacio and other business owners are planning special events like concerts on the beach to attract more vacationers he also traveled to the university of arizona with rocky points tourism director urging the university not to issue any special travel warnings for mexico there are three public universities in arizona all for now have directed students to the us bureau of consular affairs instead of issuing their own advisories but rocky points efforts to portray itself as safe are not going well the us government has renewed its travel alert for mexico warning of an increase in drugrelated violence and saying all those wanting to travel to the border should exercise extreme caution rocky point police chief fransisco erick landagaray macias said problems within the department such as corruption have decreased since a new mayor was elected in september he said the new administration has been tirelessly working to eliminate corruption and that the biggest crime problem in rocky point is not touristrelated but instead is domestic violence he said parents should have no concerns in sending their children theres going to be a lot of