TripAdvisor removes warnings of rape and injuries at Mexican resorts tourists say

[Stuart G]

Last edited Thu Nov 2, 2017, 06:44 PM - Edit history (8)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

(6:00 a.m.11/1, Updated 5:51 p.m 11/1/)
In late July, a woman from Indianapolis posed a question on TripAdvisor:

Should she and her husband travel to Riviera Maya for a Mexican vacation? They had read about problems with alcohol at the resorts vacationers who blacked out and were assaulted, robbed, raped, even died. Question: "Should we go there?" There were 59 responses ,but many were removed. All responses were positive, there were no warnings. What about the other 27 posts? Did anyone express worry, describe problems or share experiences that might serve as warnings?

The public had no way to know. The 27 posts had been removed from the website.

Since July, when the Journal Sentinel began investigating the mysterious death of a Wisconsin college student in Mexico and found widespread problems with tainted alcohol, derelict law enforcement and price gouging from hospitals more than a dozen travelers from across the country have said TripAdvisor muzzled their first-hand stories of blackouts, rapes and other ways they were injured while vacationing in Mexico.

To me its like censoring, said Wendy Avery-Swanson of Phoenix, whose recent review of a Mexican resort describing how she blacked out from a small amount of alcohol served at the swim-up bar was removed from the website.

It wasnt hearsay, as TripAdvisor claimed, said Avery-Swanson, 52. It actually happened to me.



Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2017/11/01/tripadvisor-removed-warnings-rapes-and-injuries-mexico-resorts-tourists-say/817172001/

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(These three paragraphs are deep within the article. I urge you to read the entire article to get there)

Warning: this is indeed ugly and it is a long inclusive article.....................This is the first time I have read about the company removing warnings about resorts from their website.

The company edited out any bad reviews of resorts on their website. Warnings from travelers not go to a resort because basically there is a danger there for travelers from the United States.. Trip/Advisor did not want that advice on the Trip/Advisor website.. If the article is true, and the research seems to be true, then the company needs to be put out of business for its attitude toward people who go to dangerous resorts.

I am so angry that this company did this. ... These resorts are not safe, and Trip/Advisor doesn't want anyone to know about it. Travelers from the United States going to Mexican resorts, where there were questions about, had those warning removed from the website. The warnings and negative stories were deleted on purpose to keep the resorts from being "exposed" as "dangerous." It was not one or two posts that were removed. Evidently all negative posts about these resorts, and the dangers that they posed to travelers from the United States were removed.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Evil company

[Stuart G]

2. Yes, "Evil" as you said, but this is in some ways much worse.

Fellow travelers tried to warn others by posting stories about their bad experiences. But these "bad" traveling experiences were deleted on purpose. Why? ...to protect the company's profits, rather than protect the people traveling to those specific resorts. I am so angry about the deletions, but that is to be expected by companies that only care about "profits" rather then the so called "advise" that TripAdviser is supposed to be giving.
.......So what else is new?...nothing..

[RobinA]

3. I Think TripAdvisor

has a bit of a tough line to walk. Their reviews need to be believed in order for them to remain the go-to travel source for many people. In the environment there are many people who will write false reviews, both positive and negative. Also in the environment bad things do happen to people. Of the people who have bad things happen to them, some will be the victims of their own dumb actions and then blame the resort/hotel/staff/whatever. Other people will be the unfortunate victims of real criminals.

Coincidentally, I visited the Rivera Maya two years ago and researched quite a bit. I found no shortage of stories that fit into all of the above categories on TripAdvisor. Obviously, I don't know what was left out, but by no stretch did it seem like everything bad was eliminated. Again, I think they have a job I wouldn't want trying to keep things accurate.

And above all, an Internet forum written by thousands of people is not the be all and end all of of what will happen to you when you travel somewhere, it's merely one source of information.

[Blue_Adept]

4. I can imagine them being sued if they left it on as well

There's a whole range of issues with it, it's not a black and white issue as some may suggest it should be because there are laws and all, not just emotion.