Interior Department Alejandro Poire says millions of tourists visit Mexico without incident.
Poire told a news conference Tuesday that he believes "these alerts overstate or misstate the standards and security situation that exists in our country."
The State Department issued an updated travel warning Feb. 8 urging travelers to "defer nonessential travel" to 14 of Mexico's 31 states due to drug-related violence that has cost more than 47,500 lives since 2006.
The warning notes "millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year" and resort areas are generally safer.
"The US State Department's revised travel warning is more precise and provides more context than before and as such it is something that the Mexico Tourism Board applauds. Millions upon millions of Americans visit Mexico each year without incident, many of them college students on Spring Break. This is a time honored tradition; their safety is paramount. "
