Come Monday, you better pack your passport for that weekend cruise to Cancun or that quick shopping trip across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Gone are the days when you could just declare your U.S. citizenship and breeze through U.S. Customs at the nation’s land and sea ports. Even your Texas driver’s license and a birth certificate won’t get you home these days — at least not without some extra questioning from U.S. border inspectors.

After years of delays, the U.S. government on Monday will start requiring U.S. citizens returning home from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda to show their U.S. passport — or one of five other forms of secure ID — at land borders and sea ports.

THERE may be no better time to visit Mexico than now. It’s been about a month since swine flu scares sent tourists fleeing, but with new cases of the H1N1 virus on the wane, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its ban on nonessential travel to Mexico on May 15. Museums, restaurants and historic sites are largely back in business. And resorts from Los Cabos to Cancún, which saw occupancy plummet by more than 50 percent at the end of April and the beginning of May, are beckoning with discounts of up to 70 percent.

The days of merely flashing your driver’s license (and your tan) to get back into the country from Cancún or the Caribbean is coming to an end.

On June 1, the U.S. government will finally put the full requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) into effect, which in theory should strengthen the borders between Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean region and the U.S.

The ins and outs for travelers who don’t hold a passport are manifold, but the easiest solution to navigating the bureaucracy can be summed up in three magic words: Get. Your. Passport.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped their recommendation Friday that U.S. travelers avoid Mexico because of the flu outbreak. The Travel Health Warning recommending against non-essential travel to Mexico, which went into effect April 27, is “downgraded to a Travel Health Precaution for Mexico,” the health agency said Friday in a bulletin on its website.
The update adds that “there is evidence that the Mexican outbreak (of the H1N1 virus infection) is slowing down in many cities, though not all. In addition, the United States and other countries are now seeing increasing numbers of cases not associated with travel to Mexico. Finally, the risk of severe disease from novel H1N1 virus infection now appears to be less than originally thought.”

Mexican authorities say that resort destinations, including Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Zihuatanejo, and Cozumel, are H1N1 (swine) flu free. And it looks like there has only been one case reported in Cancun. This is according to an L.A. Times story about what the Mexican government is doing in an attempt to restart tourism.

It’s not just the Mexican government encouraging summer visitors. Apple Vacations has announced its “biggest-ever” Mexico air-and-hotel package sale, with prices up to 70 percent off for summer and fall trips. Per person, per night rates start at $70 per night for airfare and all-inclusive accommodations.

May 13 (Bloomberg) — Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB, Mexico’s largest non-government airport operator, may see passenger traffic drop as much as 13 percent in 2009 because of the swine flu outbreak and the country’s weakening economy, Chief Executive Officer Jorge Sales said.

The flu outbreak that has caused 60 deaths in Mexico may push traffic down two to three percentage points more than the company’s previous forecast for an 8 percent to 10 percent decline this year, Sales said in an interview today. Airports in the tourist towns of Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos will be hit the hardest as carriers cut back on flights, he said.