TIJUANA: Badly hit by declining tourism revenues, Mexico's northern border states are joining forces with Mexico's federal government in a plan to revive the region.

Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán hosted a meeting yesterday at a coastal development in Tijuana attended by Mexican tourism secretary Rodolfo Elizondo Torres and the governors of Sonora, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. The governors of Chihuahua and Coahuila sent representatives.

Over the next two months, the states agreed to develop a plan outlining measures to reverse the tourism decline.

While tourism across Mexico is up more than 8 percent since last year, border states have seen declining numbers of U.S. tourists, due to congested border crossings, reports of crime and other factors.

The Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a Tijuana-based think tank, estimates about $2.5 billion in potential revenues are lost each year as a result of bottlenecks along the northern border. –S.D.