The gruesome headlines from Mexico’s drug war may be the stuff of nightmares, but there is little sign the millions of foreign tourists who visit the country each year are losing much sleep over it.

Not only has international tourism not suffered in Mexico because of the violence, the number of travellers was up 12.4 per cent in the first quarter of the year, Mexico’s Tourism Minister said.

US, Canadian and European airlines are adding capacity to meet the demand, and Mexico is experiencing big jumps in tourism from places like Brazil and China that until recently were not on its radar.

And yet at the same time parts of the country have seen extra-ordinarily high levels of violence as drug cartels fight over turf and with government forces. More than 34,000 people have been killed during the past five years.

Kidnappings of busloads of migrants, discoveries of hundreds of bodies in mass graves and daily assassinations have dominated the news from Mexico, prompting an expanded US travel warning in April.

“We have a challenge. We acknowledge that,” said Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara in an interview.

“But at the same time that challenge is remote and far away from touristic destinations.”