TIJUANA -- In an effort to promote Baja California as a safe place for tourists, officials plan to distribute brochures with contact information for local mayors and police chiefs to people planning to visit the Mexican state.

Baja California plans to circulate the green passport-looking brochures as early as this week in California, Nevada and Arizona, which officials are targeting with their campaign to boost tourism, which is down.

U.S. –based Mexican consulates and travel agencies and Baja California tourism offices and hotels will be distributing the brochures, which are in English and Spanish, said Alfonso Bustamante, Tijuana's binational affairs director during a news conference on Friday.

"This makes you a very distinguished guest of the state of Baja California," Bustamante said, holding a copy of the brochure, during the press event at Tijuana's City Hall.

"They will instruct all police in the whole state that if anything happens to any of you and you (present) this they will know that you are a distinguished guest and they will take care of you correctly," Bustamante said.

Tourism has declined dramatically in the five Baja California municipalities for a variety of reasons, including the increase in drug-related violence, the economic recession, a new U.S. passport requirement and the lengthy waits to cross the border.

Baja California officials stress that tourist destinations are secure and that the violence that has plagued the region is declining.

More than 1,000 people were killed last year in Baja California, most linked to drug violence, including more than 800 in Tijuana. Baja California authorities who participated in a binational forum in San Diego last week said the violence in their state, though still high, has become less brazen, often occurring in poorer neighborhoods away from tourist destinations.

Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante said that the number of murders in Tijuana is declining. The mayor said more than 100 people were killed in January last year but that number was in the 50s, this year. "The key has been coordination with the army," he said, referring to Mexican military participation in the war against Mexican cartels.

Alfonso Bustamante, who is the mayor's brother, said the worst of the violence appears to be over in Baja California but that tourism is still hurting. Business at hotels and restaurants in Tijuana has dramatically dropped in the last few years.

Journalists from the three U.S. Southwest states where the brochures are going to be distributed attended the press event during a tour of Baja California cities sponsored by the city of Tijuana.

Leonel.sanchez@sandiegored.com