Every schoolchild knows that Canada and Mexico are the United States’ closest neighbors; the three nations share borders, populations and even economies, since Canada and Mexico are two of America’s three largest trading partners (the third being China).
What’s not as well-known is that meeting across the borders is nearly as easy as getting together in the U.S. While American citizens now need passports to visit Canada and Mexico, this shouldn’t be a problem for planners and attendees who think ahead—and the passport process may even add to the allure of "foreign" destinations that are remarkably close to home.
Canada
Canada’s profile rose sharply this year after the Winter Olympic Games were held in and around Vancouver and the Whistler/Blackcomb ski areas in British Columbia. For planners, this means the entire region offers new and renovated hotels, transportation and other infrastructure, creating many new ways to see and stay in Vancouver, neighboring Victoria or the nearby ski destinations.
Other popular Canada destinations lie farther east in Alberta’s wild west, which includes Banff and Lake Louise, a natural haven in the Canadian Rockies boasting unique meetings-ready properties such as Banff Centre, and the commercial and cultural metros of Calgary, home to the Calgary Telus Convention Centre, and Edmonton, the vibrant provincial capital on the plains. Farther east are other popular metros, such as Toronto and delightfully French Montreal. All these destinations have become more cosmopolitan as they have grown, says Robin Thompson, director of Northwest sales development at the Canadian Tourism Commission.
"Canada now has more experience at hosting the world’s biggest events, such as the Winter Olympics in February and the G8/G20 summit in June [in Ontario], the Toronto Film Festival and so on. There are new and expanded convention centers popping up all over the country, and the service levels are very high," Thompson says.
Thompson easily sums up Canada’s appeal for U.S. planners.
"All major airlines provide easy access to cities in Canada, so you have easy in and out," Thompson says. "Canada is viewed as safe, secure, friendly and beautiful, which usually results in higher-attended meetings compared with those held in the U.S."
Canada is foreign yet familiar to most Americans, and English is near-universal, and Thompson adds that Canada offers excellent value per dollar and rebates both its Goods & Services and HST taxes to groups with 75 percent or more non-Canadian attendees. She also notes that some hotels will actually lock in room rates in U.S. dollars at the meeting planner’s request, although the planner must be confident about the two currencies’ direction.
The only cons Thompson cites are the passport requirement and the perception of customs and shipping as hassles, which she says are easily solved by using a customs broker.
Canada is actually in better economic shape than the U.S. nowadays, with a low debt-to-GDP ratio and the world’s 10th-largest economy. And just to show the value of the meetings dollar, while 15 percent of U.S. visitors come to Canada on business, they make up 23 percent of visitor revenue in the country.
"Plus, big-city Canada is much more affordable than big-city USA if you compare costs such as hotel rooms, parking and so on," Thompson says. "As an example, compare Vancouver versus San Francisco, or Toronto versus New York."
Thompson also says international visitors may have an easier time attending a Canadian event than one held in the U.S.
"If you have international visitors attending a meeting or convention, Canada is easier to access without visas compared to the U.S., a major selling point these days and especially for Chinese visitors since the visa restriction has been waived [for entry into Canada]."
Thompson also suggests pre- and post-event happenings in Banff, Alberta, and corporate team-building exercises in either Banff or neighboring Lake Louise, while more mountain-minded groups can take to the slopes of Whistler.
Mexico
2010 is Mexico’s bicentennial, marking 200 years since the country declared independence from Spain, and parties and celebrations have continued throughout the year. The country offers three time zones’ worth of natural wonders, a fascinating and highly visible history and an increasingly robust democracy. Its Pacific, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico beaches come complete with world-class resorts, while inland Mexico offers a mountainous West, a high central plain and a lush east and southeast that stretches all the way to neighboring Belize and Guatemala.
In western Mexico, places like Los Cabos, Acapulco, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta have been famous for decades, while destinations such as Punta Mita (north of Puerto Vallarta), the Costa Alegre, Manzanillo, Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo and Huatulco have gained fame in recent years.
Meanwhile, Mexican Caribbean resorts such as Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, as well as the Gulf of Mexico state of Veracruz, are becoming household names in the U.S.—plus they’re practically shouting distance from the East Coast.
Interior Mexico destinations are packed with colonial and pre-Columbian history. As the capital and one of the world’s largest cities, Mexico City has an unsurpassed level of facilities, culture, food and nightlife. Guadalajara is an industrial and IT powerhouse that one observer compared to a young Chicago, and it’s getting ready to host the Pan-American Games in 2011. Then there’s Monterrey, another prominent manufacturing center that is within driving distance to Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Texas.
Visitors seeking a historic experience will enjoy Spanish Colonial cities such as Morelia, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, while Mayan sites such as Tulum and Chichen Itza, both on the Yucatan, are well preserved and well equipped to handle visiting groups.
Eduardo Chaillo, executive director for the meetings industry at the Mexico Tourism Board in Washington, D.C., sees a silver lining in the economic downturn that began in 2008: Budget-conscious planners are taking a good, hard look at Mexico.
"I think we’ve been able to keep most of the business—or maybe attract business—that used to go to Asia, for example, or Europe," he says. "Now we’re closer and more affordable."
Chaillo adds that the impact of U.S. meetings in Mexico is enormously greater than simple visitation numbers show.
"Of all the Americans who go by air to Mexico, in 2009, 7 percent went there to a meeting or convention, [but] those 7 percent represent 14 percent of all the revenue we get, so it’s a very profitable market for us," he says.
Mexico’s state and local governments have responded to this profitability by building a new wave of meeting facilities and resorts practically across the country.
"We have five or six new destinations that are ready for international meetings in Veracruz, Merida and Puebla, and Chihuahua is very well equipped, and in Zacatecas they’ve built a new, green convention center," Chaillo says.
Meanwhile, the Puerto Vallarta International Convention Center and the Mazatlan International Center are among the new group facilities in beach resorts.
Numerous local professionals are also getting certified as CMPs or CFMs, according to Chaillo, who says it raises professionalism nationwide. Meanwhile, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) has opened its newest chapter in Mexico City.
Mexico has been running consumer ads under the tagline "Mexico: The Place You Thought You Knew" to emphasize how much is happening there. On the business side, since 2004 Mexico has waived the value-added tax (VAT) for facilities, services and food and beverage related to meetings, conventions, congresses and expos, which means that the dollar cost of meeting in Mexico is 10 percent less than it used to be.
The Achilles heel for Mexico tourism concerns whether drug-related conflict may spread beyond border cities to the country as a whole—to which Chaillo responds that Mexico is a huge country, just like the U.S.
"We’re trying to communicate, communicate, communicate exactly the situation, the context, the geographic location of the problems, and taking a very candid and honest approach," he says. "If something happens in Las Vegas, you’re not avoiding New York, right? It’s 2,000 miles from Ciudad Juarez to Cancun."
Zora O’Neill, author of The Rough Guide to the Yucatan, has traveled extensively throughout Mexico and agrees with this sentiment.
"Stuff may be happening but it is so far from where tourists go," O’Neill says. "When you [hear] that there is ‘trouble in Mexico,’ you really need to pinpoint where that is and look at a map. Mexico is a mellow and super-functional place."
Fittingly enough, Mexico prefers to look forward rather than dwelling on current events—in some cases by emphasizing its heroic history. Starting this year, visitors can try out new routes named for the father of Mexican independence, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, such as La Ruta de Hidalgo Norte and seven others that commemorate famous events surrounding Mexico’s independence and the Revolution. For example, the new Ruta de Hidalgo Centro includes historic areas such as Guanajuato, Queretaro, Michoacan and Chihuahua.
Paul D. Kretkowski writes frequently about travel, food and sports. He is also the founder of Beacon (www.softpowerbeacon.blogspot.com), a blog about foreign policy.
