Photo courtesy of latinflyer.com
The 39th annual Tianguis Turistico broke records, with 8,000 attendees and 1,500 buyers from 60 countries.
"Tourism is the powerhouse that fuels our economy," said Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's president during his keynote speech. "Our government is committed to pursuing tourism strategies that will place us in the top tier of global destinations in terms of revenues earned, visitors welcomed and developments launched."
The conference, which was held at the Lakam Center in Cancun May 6 to 9, also featured an appearance by the actor Kevin Spacey, who told attendees during a press conference that he would "love to shoot in Mexico." Spacey, who said his favorite food is Mexican, plans to spread the word about the destination. "I'm excited to tell people this is a place to come visit," he said.
Attendees, meanwhile, gave the conference high marks. "I think it was an excellent playground for vendors to expose their uniqueness in the products offered," said Alejandro Alegue, sales manager, groups and niche markets for Karisma Hotels & Resorts. "It was also an excellent venue for Karisma to expose its brand position and understand how the competition is performing."
According to Carlos Eguiarte, coordinator of Riviera Nayarit, Cancun's accessibility has resulted in productive meetings with tourism entities from such emerging destinations as Colombia and Brazil. "We're trying to close deals," he said, adding that more delegates from Caribbean destinations also attended this year's Tianguis.
Manual Rubio, director of sales for Hard Rock Vallarta, noted that questions regarding Mexico and safety were few and far between. "Our meetings were focused on what the destination has to offer as opposed to questions about security," he said. "We're glad that the conversation has come back to asking about Mexican destinations rather than safety."
Wally Dagri, public relations manager for Playa Hotels & Resorts, which owns and manages the Hyatt Zilara in Cancun and Hyatt Ziva in Los Cabos, said the conference helped his company spread the word about the new hotels. "It's important to let people know Hyatt's now in the all-inclusive market," he said.
In other developments, Dagri believes that bringing Tianguis back to Acapulco next year is a good thing. "We're happy that Tianguis is coming back to its original home," he said. "We hope we'll find the same high standards that we found in Cancun."
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