Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - On April 13, 2015, the US Department of State updated its official travel warning regarding unsafe areas of Mexico to avoid. This advisory replaces the December 24, 2014 Travel Warning for Mexico to update information about the security situation and to advise the public of additional restrictions on the travel of U.S. government personnel.

The good news for tourists is that Mexico's most popular vacation destinations - including Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit; Guadalajara and Lake Chapala; Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya, Merida, and Tulum; San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato; Oaxaca, Huatulco and Puerto Escondido; Los Cabos, and Mexico City - are still exempted.

The updated travel advisory also says that "Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government dedicates substantial resources to protect visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that organized criminal groups have targeted U.S. visitors or residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime that are reported in the border region or in areas along major trafficking routes."

Tourism is one of the biggest revenue producers in Mexico, and is promoted by the government and private business. At the 2015 Tianguis Turístico, held in Acapulco March 23-25, President Peña Nieto announced that, according to the World Tourism Organization, Mexico is among the ten most visited countries of the world.

"In the 2014 calendar year, 29.1 million foreigners visited Mexico, bringing $16 billion dollars into the Mexican economy. That was an increase over the 2013 figure of 24.2 million foreign tourists," he added.

Here in the Banderas Bay area, the Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureaus have been aggressively promoting this tourist destination through an ambitious promotional campaign in US and Canadian markets and, with foreign tourists heading to Vallarta-Nayarit in far greater numbers than in recent years, their efforts seem to be paying off.

In fact, during FITUR 2015, an International Tourism Fair held in Spain, Puerto Vallarta was awarded Grupo Excelencias' 2014 Tourism Excellence Award; and at the 2015 Tianguis, Mexico's largest tourism fair, Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit was awarded TripAdvisor's 2015 "Best Beach" recognition.

So what are you waiting for? Start planning your Mexico dream vacation today!