Diana Flores, captain and quarterback of Mexico’s World Champion Women’s National Flag Football team (Photo Credit: Los Cabos Tourism Board)
Los Cabos has launched what Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, calls the “pinnacle” of a campaign to position the Mexican destination as a wellness haven with the naming of the destination’s first-ever brand ambassador.
She is Diana Flores, the captain and quarterback of Mexico’s World Champion Women’s National Flag Football team. (Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end a down.)
Flores will participate in high-visibility events, new campaign assets and advertisements, and an expansive social media-first strategy on a global scale. At an event at the Virgin Hotel in New York, Flores said she saw her connections as a Mexican and an athlete aligned with Los Cabos to become a center for everything around wellness – physical, spiritual and emotional.
In an interview with TravelPulse before the event, Esponda said the destination has found that most travelers coming out of the pandemic were “completely burnt out and stressed.” They said they wanted to return from a vacation with more balance in their lives.
The brand ambassador is the third and last phase of the wellness campaign, said Esponda, with the first positioning Los Cabos as a wellness retreat in a more traditional way. The second was more “holistic” with a focus on all the activities and options around wellness in the destination – a natural place with mountains, desert and ocean and many ways for travelers to reflect on their inner selves.
And this third phase, he said, is the “pinnacle” because Flores is the “perfect representative” of what marketers are aiming to achieve. “We needed a figure,” said Esponda, “that would represent a Mexican connection and we thought an athlete would be ideal.” He said Flores turned out to be even more reflective of the campaign’s goals than originally thought because of all the values she represents – “someone who has worked very hard to become the champion she is and who has realized her dreams.”
In her talk at the event, Flores talked about how she faced challenges throughout her life because she was always told she could not achieve her goals because she was too small, a Latina and a woman. She overcame all of that, she said and hoped she could serve as a model for others.
Flores also has a U.S. connection, said Esponda, because she has played football in this country. He said that with the emergence of Flores and a championship team, flag football is becoming more popular in Mexico and is being discussed as an Olympic sport.
The brand ambassador campaign will involve consumer, trade and social media. There is also a microsite about Flores herself.
As for travel advisors, said Esponda, more wellness content is being integrated into the Los Cabos Specialist program – “offering a very good way for advisors to showcase the destination to travelers interested in wellness.” Wellness-minded visitors, according to the destination’s research, spend an average of $3,000 per trip.
According to Esponda, about 30% of travelers who come to Los Cabos closed the sale with travel advisors. “And they are the best travelers,” he said, because of their spending and the number of activities in which they participate. “We get the most relevant type of business from advisors.”
As for Los Cabos itself, said Esponda, the outlook for the winner is very positive. After a strong early start this year because of “revenge travel,” the situation is stabilizing with some interesting changes in demographics as the interest in wellness grows. In turn, tour operators and other suppliers are becoming more innovative in delivering wellness-centered products. Otherwise, said Esponda, Los Cabos “continues to work hard to achieve the highest levels of service and safety.”
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