The Caribbean is drawing a line in the sand and inviting groups across. Close to home, undeniably exotic and already a strong player in the incentives market, the Caribbean has raised its profile as a destination for meetings and conventions, expanding its portfolio of luxury hotel brands and welcoming major convention centers within the past few years.
Meeting planners have responded accordingly, industry executives report.
“I am seeing more companies looking to place programs in the Caribbean,” says Danielle Gillis, global event director for Questex Hospitality and Travel, organizers of the annual Caribbean Meeting & Incentive Travel Exchange (CMITE). “There are many great options as far as new hotels openings and DMC partners to help facilitate planner needs.”
The next CMITE takes place Sept. 20-23 at Jamaica’s Iberostar Grand Hotel Rose Hall, and its host location of Jamaica paints a similarly rosy picture.
“There’s a lot of demand in Jamaica and the Caribbean in general,” says Marcia Bullock-Jobson, the Jamaica Tourist Board’s regional director for groups and conventions. “We’re seeing the return of much bigger groups. I myself did a site inspection for 1,000 for an incentive. That’s not a number we’ve seen a lot of lately.”
Western Caribbean
Larger groups would also feel at home in the coastal resort city of Cancun, whose primary convention center boasts more than 150,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space and is due to add a flagship hotel later this year, the identity of which had not been announced at press time.
“The brand is new to Mexico. It’s part of a U.S. chain, but they’re not releasing the name for now,” says Fernando Cervantes, groups and conventions director for the Cancun CVB.
Also on the move is the Cancunmesse exhibition center, located on 42 acres near the airport and billed as having the largest trade fair grounds in Latin America, though it’s about to get bigger, as the center has broken ground on an additional 200,000 square feet of indoor meeting space.
Demand is on the rise, Cervantes notes.
“We haven’t seen cancellations as we had been seeing, and we’ve grown about seven percent this year,” he says.
As further proof of Cancun’s renewed meetings vitality, Cervantes points to a recent spate of hotel projects, including the August opening of Secrets The Vine Cancun, offering 17,000 square feet of meeting space, and the $100 million transformation of the former Hilton Cancun into the Iberostar Cancun, now an all-inclusive property. One of those inclusions? The property’s 49,000-square-foot convention center.
“All-inclusives are an added value we have in our destination,” Cervantes says.
Even one of the world’s best-known brands is converting to the all-inclusive concept in Cancun, as the former Cancun Palace has become the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun, giving the destination more international presence, Cervantes says.
Another new all-inclusive property that debuted in March, Sandos Cancun (formerly a Le Meridien), touts its “experiential meetings,” with unusual breakout and team-building experiences tailored to specific groups.
“Groups are able to engage in nontraditional team-building activities that are infused with local culture and indigenous flavors,” says Martina Rodriguez, the property’s general manager. “If a group wants to focus on conquering fears, we may suggest whale shark diving. If they are interested in an experiential culinary adventure, our team will arrange for a deep-sea fishing excursion and accompanying cooking lesson using the fish they caught. All in all, every experience will be unique to Cancun,” she adds.
Also unique to Cancun is proximity to centuries-old Mayan ruins, including Chichen Itza, Coba and, trailing southward along the Riviera Maya, Tulum, the only Mayan site overlooking the sea.
“The history of the Mayan culture is very important here, and combining Tulum with Xel-Ha is the top tour in Riviera Maya,” says Carlos Mora, meetings manager for the Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office, referring to a nearby waterpark known for its snorkeling, Snuba and dolphin swims.
Combining eco-excitement with meeting space is the special talent of Xcaret to the north, a sprawling archaeological park where visitors hike jungle trails, explore underground rivers, swim with sharks and walk under the waves with the help of special helmets. Already equipped to host up to 2,000 in various settings, including private dinners featuring traditional Mexican cuisine, Xcaret is planning to build a ballroom that will host 1,000 theater-style, Mora says.
Meanwhile, hotel development in Riviera Maya is experiencing a boom similar to Cancun’s, complete with another Hard Rock conversion as two adjacent Palace Resorts properties, Aventura Cove Palace and Aventura Spa Palace, become the Hard Rock Riviera Maya in early 2013. The new resort will offer a combined 1,266 guest rooms along with extensive meeting space.
Not to be outdone, a new Paradisus hotel duo opened in Playa del Carmen last November, offering separate properties for adults and families, shared common areas and a 25,000-square-foot convention center.
On the horizon in Riviera Maya is Kanai, a resort destination with properties from Park Hyatt, W Retreat, St. Regis and Auberge.
With so much real estate coming into the region, it’s not surprising that the Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office recently added a separate meetings department and accompanying website, www.rivieramayameetings.com, and has stepped up its attendance at trade shows like IMEX.
“It can be cheaper to come to Riviera Maya than to Washington, D.C.,” Mora says. “The American market has been looking for something different, and we have it.”
The same might be said of Cozumel, located off the coast of Riviera Maya and known for its premier dive sites and abundant water sports, ranging from easygoing snorkeling, fishing and kayaking excursions to the extreme thrills of kite boarding, windsurfing and ultralight airplane flights.
Like Cancun and the Riviera Maya, Cozumel has Mayan heritage sites—according to legend, the island was the sanctuary of the Mayan goddess of fertility, X’chel—while the island’s natural jungle areas offer adventures like ATV tours and ziplining.
Meeting-friendly properties include the Presidente InterContinental Cozumel Resort & Spa and the Occidental Grand Cozumel, while arrivals and departures are made easy by a number of convenient transportation connections.
“Cozumel is very well connected by airline or ship,” notes Pedro Hermosillo, marketing director for the Cozumel Tourism Office. “You can fly from the most important cities in the world to our island.”
The ins and outs of travel convenience are also touted by the isle of Jamaica, where accessibility is always first and foremost, according to Marcia Bullock-Jobson, regional director of groups and conventions for the Jamaica Tourist Board.
“We have all the major legacy carriers and low-cost carriers flying into Jamaica,” she says.
Once on the island, groups also benefit from an upgraded infrastructure that includes improved highways, additional hotel rooms and an impressive new meeting facility: the Montego Bay Convention Centre, which opened last year with 132,000 square feet of meeting, exhibition and ballroom space. Set against lush hills of the Rose Hall corridor, the SMG-managed facility is within minutes of Half Moon Hotel and Golf Club, the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa, the Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort and other upscale properties who felt they were losing their market share, according to Dittie Guise, the center’s general manager.
“That’s one of the reasons the convention center was built,” she says. “There are so many high-quality hotels within a short distance.”
Guise says South American auto shows, European and Canadian companies, and tech firms have all expressed interest in the center.
“As we grow into our marketing plan, the demand is going to be even more,” she says.
Eastern Caribbean
Like their western counterparts, islands in the eastern Caribbean have been flush with new projects, starting with a long-awaited resort complex on Nassau’s Cable Beach: Baha Mar, which is slated to open in phases starting in 2014 and will include Rosewood, Mondrian and Grand Hyatt properties, among others, and the existing Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort & Casino. Also part of the plan are an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Course and an eco waterpark, along with shopping, dining and extensive meeting space.
In addition, Nassau’s airport will unveil a new international arrivals terminal later this year along with a new international departures terminal scheduled for fall 2013.
Meanwhile, outside of Nassau, Pelican Bay at Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island recently added The Canal House, a conference center offering 30,680 square feet of meeting space, while the new Bimini Bay Resort and Marina boasts a 5,000-square-foot conference facility.
“We’re preparing for the business to start coming back. The industry has already started rebounding,” says Kara Manouzi, Fort Lauderdale-based group sales manager for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, who fully expects the Bahamas to enjoy a healthy piece of the pie. “We have a variety of islands, especially for those who have two-tier programs. You can take your top tier to a different island for a day, or you can rent an island for a board meeting. The Bahamas is always a good draw. Our facilities run the gamut.”
An enticing variety for meetings of all sizes and budgets is also to be found on the isle of Puerto Rico, where the big-city excitement of San Juan is anchored by the dazzling Puerto Rico Convention Center, set on a peninsula that once housed a U.S. naval base but now is home to a developing convention center district that includes the Sheraton Puerto Rico Hotel & Casino and eventually will encompass multiple hotels, shopping venues, residences and recreation areas.
“The district will become part of an urban waterfront development project called the Bahia Urbana, connecting to Old San Juan through light rail, water taxis and bikeways,” says Neil Mullanaphy, acting president and CEO for the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau.
Bookings are healthy as the convention center turns seven, Mullanaphy reports, while luxury properties are on the rise island-wide. Recent openings include the St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort and W Retreat & Spa Vieques, while brands like The Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Vanderbilt, Fairmont and JW Marriott are slated to come online in the next 18 months.
“We are certainly seeing demand among meeting planners for our luxury product, particularly among smaller corporate and incentive groups,” Mullanaphy says. “However, Puerto Rico also has a wide range of budget and value accommodations, with Courtyard by Marriott and Doubletree among them.”
Diversity of resorts and activities are hallmarks of a stay in the Dominican Republic, boasting a 250-mile coastline lined with beaches, while an interior spans tropical rain forests and arid deserts alike, as visitors enjoy everything from mountain climbing to Jeep safaris and whale-watching.
In a few short years, this neighbor of Puerto Rico has gone from undiscovered to one of the top emerging meetings destinations in the world, says Patricia Perez, director of the Dominican Republic Tourism Office in Chicago.
“It’s our combination of natural beauty, new luxury developments and convention facilities, increased airlift and ability to offer value,” she says. “Passenger arrivals from the U.S. have been consistently growing in the last year. In the first quarter of 2012, we saw a 14 percent increase over the same period in 2011.”
Keeping pace are such new hotels as the Hard Rock Punta Cana, the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Deluxe—both offering the largest convention facilities in Punta Cana—while in La Romana, Casa de Campo recently invested $42 million in renovations, including the upgrade of its Flamboyan Conference Center.
To the east, it’s all about new experiences in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as St. Thomas recently unveiled the Magic Ice Gallery, where visitors can cool down amid intricate ice sculptures while an ice-bar serves up cocktails made with the islands’ own Cruzan rum.
In the same spirit, groups visiting St. Croix can stop by the recently opened Captain Morgan Rum distillery’s welcome center to tour the plant and see how the rum is made. In St. John, another type of liquid is spotlighted on the new Discovery Undersea Reef Tour, a glass-bottom boat excursion over the island’s colorful underwater panoramas.
Back on dry land, the USVI boasts several meetings-friendly resorts, including Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort on St. Thomas, the Divi Carina Bay on St. Croix and the Westin St. John Resort & Villas. Factor in nonstop flights from major U.S. cities, no currency exchange rates and no roaming charges from most cellphone carriers, and the USVI is an excellent value, notes Beverly Nicholson-Doty, commissioner of tourism for the USVI Department of Tourism.
“Meeting planners also receive support from the many DMCs we have on-island that offer group services at varying price points,” Nicholson-Doty says.
Meanwhile, if you’re going Dutch in the Caribbean, Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten—the southern half of an island also shared by French St. Martin—offer the flavor and architecture of Old Europe in thoroughly tropical settings enhanced by world-class resorts, including the Renaissance Curacao Resort & Casino, the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino in St. Maarten, the Westin Aruba and the Hyatt Regency Aruba, which unveiled the new ZoiA Spa in February. Continuing its march through the Caribbean, Hard Rock is planning a 310-room beachfront property in Aruba near the capital city of Oranjestad.
