Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Mexico fell out of the Top 10 most visited countries in the world in 2012, moving from 10th place to 13th place in October, according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

Overall, Mexico received 23.1 million international tourists in 2012, which means a drop in percentage terms 1.2 points, as it recorded 23.4 million foreign vacationers in 2011 and 23.3 million in 2010.

In terms of income, the picture is not encouraging. Mexico fell from 23rd to 24th place, in spite of the fact that tourism brought in an historic $12.7 billion dollars in 2012. This represents an increase of more than 6 percent when compared to the $11.9 billion dollars the country received from tourism the previous year.

Anahuac University School of Tourism Director, Francisco Madrid, explained that this decrease is due in part to the past Administration having an unrealistic goal, which was to make Mexico one of the five most visited countries in the world by 2018.

"It was a mistake to set a goal that was unattainable and try to align all public and private efforts to a lost cause," said Madrid. One solution, he said, is to focus more efforts on increasing average spending, rather than attracting more tourists. "Tourists' average expenditure in Mexico is at $750 USD, while the average expenditure in the U.S. is $2000," said Madrid.

Arturo Musi Ganem, President of the Mexican Association for the Care of Cruise Ship Business (Amepact) stated that this decrease implies a loss of global competitiveness.

"Other countries are getting more income from cruise travel and we are losing ground in this market," he noted. "The perception of insecurity continues to affect the image of our country, and recent events such as the Malcom case and the attack on Spanish tourists do not help, since they get so much international media attention."

"When it comes to cruise ship travel, Mexico is still being identified by a negative image of our country," said Musi Ganem. "People are still afraid to travel here, thinking they will suffer some sort of mishap."

In this regard, the Ministry of Tourism indicated that the data that put Mexico at number 13 was based on the country's tourism performance in 2012, but this year it has shown a significant recovery.

The main indicators of tourism in Mexico showed and a recovery in the first quarter, which foresees positive growth in 2013. Expenditures by international visitors rose 7.7 percent, while the arrival of air travelers increased by 6.8 percent in the January-March period, the Tourism Ministry emphasized.