It’s been a busy time for Mexico’s meetings segment, as the nation has hosted a succession of high-profile international events in recent months, including the G-20 Mexico Summit, the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Americas Summit and assorted other global gatherings. It’s no wonder tourism officials are bullish about trends in the marketplace.
In Mexico, business and MICE travel statistics are included in general tourism figures, which are looking better than they have in years.
“2011 was a record-breaking year for tourism in Mexico, with 23.4 million international travelers visiting our destinations,” says Alfonso Sumano, the New York City-based regional director of the Mexico Tourism Board. “This milestone represents an increase of 0.5 percent on 2010, a 4.7 percent increase on 2009 and a 5.1 percent increase on 2008—historically Mexico’s best year for international tourism.”
With over 60 major convention and exposition centers across the country—including several relatively new facilities—as well as half a million hotel rooms in more than 3,000 luxury hotels, it’s no surprise that meetings and events are a major focus for the nation’s travel and hospitality industries.
“Mexico’s meetings infrastructure has developed dramatically over the past decade,” notes Eduardo Chaillo, executive director for the meetings industry at the Mexico Tourism Board. “The number of convention centers in Mexico has more than doubled in the past 10 years—[from] 27 in 2000 to 60 in 2012—and meeting space has expanded by 162 percent. Hotel chains with facilities for meetings and CVB support has also increased tremendously. This growth in infrastructure and support has taken us to have a 25 percent increase of world congresses from one year to another.”
Mexico’s appeal for international meetings and incentives is multifold, according to both Sumano and Chaillo. In addition to favorable exchange rates and attractive pricing on hotels, facilities and services, planners can also take advantage of the Mexican government’s elimination of the Value Added Tax (VAT) of 15 percent for international meetings. And planners working with attendees from multiple nations take note: Mexico has also eased visa restrictions for some countries, including Brazil and Russia. PageBreak
The Mexico Tourism Board has made additional changes to entice planners even more, according to Chaillo, starting with the recently improved meetings section of its website (www.visitmexico.com/meetings), which he says is now “more interactive,” allowing planners to track any RFP activity or to even answer some questions regarding specific destinations, migration procedures and the advantage of 0 percent VAT. Chaillo adds that in the near future, the board will launch the Mexico Meetings University, an online tool to help meeting planners to become Mexico specialists.
Other trends that are helping Mexico’s reputation with planners include the increasing number of all-inclusive options in places like Cancun, according to Claudia Bursch, site and contract manager at Tastefully Simple in Alexandria, Minn. Bursch has sent multiple incentive groups of top-producing salespeople to properties, including the Moon Palace in Cancun.
“The all-inclusive feature is huge as far as incentives,” she explains. “Then [participants] feel that they don’t have to have a lot of money out of pocket.”
Safety concerns may still be an issue that planners must address, Bursch notes, but education can go a long way with that topic. Bursch stays on top of the news and keeps her participants informed as well, making sure they realize that an isolated incident in the far northern region has nothing to do with the situation in Mexico’s major beach and urban destinations.
“We monitor those things constantly throughout the year, and we keep in communication with our [participants] and let them know that we are on top of things,” she says.
But in general, she notes that the common-sense safety advice she offers is not much different than what she recommends for any destination.
“We tell them the same things when they come into Minneapolis for our national conference,” she says.
Bursch’s awareness of the real situation in Mexico’s top MICE destinations is indicative of the general level of sophistication about safety in Mexico, according to Fernando Cervantes, group and conventions director at the Cancun CVB. When it comes to safety, he says planners are aware of the realities of the situation.
“I think planners are very well educated,” he says. “Association presidents and corporate heads are very well educated. Where we have a little bit of a problem is with the participants—maybe a doctor who lives in some small part of the United States who doesn’t have a geographic knowledge of Mexico. But that is coming around.”
With many Mexican destinations reporting continued growth in MICE business, as well as continued investment in hotels and infrastructure, it seems clear that the message is getting out: Mexico is ready for more groups than ever.
