Uruguay came out on top as Latin America’s tourism champion in the Latin Tourism Index, put out by the Latin Business Chronicle. The index assesses the total impact of tourism on 15 countries in Latin America by measuring receipts from tourism as a percentage of GDP, arrivals per capita, and relative growth in those receipts and arrivals.

In 2009, tourism arrivals per capita equaled 61.4% of Uruguay’s population, the highest rate in Latin America. Mexico ranked sixth, even though it is the undisputed leader in the actual number of visitors and amount of receipts. While Mexico received $11.3 billion in tourism receipts last year, that accounted for only 1.3% of Mexico’s GDP. According to Glynna Prentice, Mexico editor for InternationalLiving.com, the general size and strength of Mexico’s economy makes tourism less important in real terms than it is for smaller countries.

The Dominican Republic ranked second on the Latin Tourism Index when arrivals per capita and receipts as percentage of GDP were combined. The DR has the third-highest rate of arrivals per capita and the highest rates of receipts per GDP in Latin America. Panama ranked third on the Index and had Latin America’s second-highest rate of arrivals per capita in 2009 and the third-highest rate of receipts per GDP. In growth of arrivals, Colombia took the lead in 2009, with tourism arrivals rising 10.7% to 1.4 million.