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Actually, cruise ships don't go to Cancun. It is not a "Port" per se (water depth around Cancun is often less than 10 feet, and significant Coral growth, in fact the Mesoamerican Coral Reef is the second longest Coral Reef in the world.) Cruise ships stop at Cozumel, an island where the Ferry is about 70 miles South, or Progreso, a port on the northern tip of the Yucutan near Merida, which is 215 miles away.

Cancun is a free-standing tourist destination, and the airport that serves the entire Riviera Maya region. The Riviera Maya is a strip approximately 100 miles long (from Isla Mujeres in the north to Tulum in the south, including the cities of Cancun and Playa del Carmen) where virtually 100% of beachfront consists of Resorts.

The stats given in the article are for the whole of the state of Quintana Roo, which has a permanent population of 1.75M people. Most of the gun violence in QRoo is in the residential areas, not the tourist areas. As the article also said, the bar was 4 miles from the Hotel Zone, which essentially means the beach. Tourists do not stay inland anywhere in QRoo.

Finally, the violence in Cancun or Playa that you hear about, actually is the fault of the US. The violence in the entire state of QRoo was at a lower rate than Disneyland up until a few years ago, then El Chapo was arrested. Once he was arrested, gang wars broke out as different groups sought to fill the void. The violence in Cancun or Playa is actually almost exclusively gang on gang violence.

“then El Chapo was arrested. Once he was arrested, gang wars broke out...”

I have read that the breaking of the cartels has vastly increased violence in Mexico. The old guys, violent as they were (who no doubt had a piece of the tourist industry) made sure that tourist areas were safe. The new gangs who stepped into the vacuum had/have no such qualms. They are even more violent and have extended the violence into areas that were once considered safe. Acapulco is one former tourist area that has been ruined.