Felipe Calderón appointed Gloria Guevara the new director of the country’s TourismSecretariat last March, he charged her with strengthening “Mex- ico’s vocation as a tourist destination.” Calling tourism “one of the main trig- gers of the country’s economic development,” Calderón said:“We must combine efforts with the private sector to promote not only sun and beach destinations but also all kinds of tourism—cultural, adventure, congress, business, gastronomic, natural resources, and nature resource tourism, the whole vast range of places and tourist resources Mexico can offer.”
Combining the government with the private sector is exactly what Calderón did when he plucked Guevara—who has two master’s degrees, including an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University—from travel-industry firm Sabre Travel Network Mexico, where she served as vice president and general director. “Nominating a person with professional experience and dedication to the tourist sector,” Calderón said, “proves the high priority my government places on tourism in Mexico.” Convene had the opportunity to interview Guevara in per-
son this past January at theMGMGrand in Las Vegas, where she spoke at PCMA 2011 Convening Leaders. Guevara was ele- gant and eloquent as she fielded questions about her job, the emphasis she places on meetings within the tourism sector, and how the perception of drug-related violence is affecting tourism in Mexico—tackling difficult issues with the same ease with which she rattled facts and figures off the top of her head.
What are your goals as Mexico’s secretary of tourism? Today Mexico is in the top 10 countries in the world in terms of arrivals, by air or by land. Last year we received 22.6 mil- lion travelers.We would like to be in the top five in the next seven years. That is the goal that we have defined. That means that we need to grow between 12 and 16 percent every year, to increase the number of arrivals. For this year, the goal that we have set is 15 percent. It’s a very aggressive goal; however, due to the assets, diversity, and all the richness that we have in Mexico, we believe that it’s achievable.
68 pcmaconvene April 2011
Would you say that your background in the business sector helps inform your role? Absolutely. At the company I had the pleasure and honor to work for, I was working with my customers, I was work- ing with the industry, with my peers, and with a board that I had to report to, in one of the roles that I had. So I worked with three or four dimensions. But I had a good understanding of what the industry needs and what type of support we required from the government. And one of the commitments that I made since Day No. 1
[as secretary of tourism] is to include the private sector. There’s no good government that can define, for instance, objectives, without considering opinions from the private sec- tor. It is crucial, so at the end of the day we can work together on the same agenda and in the same direction. I have a great appreciation for meeting planners and the
meetings industry. They don’t need to convince me; they don’t need to do a business case to tell me the economic value of that segment. I have that very clear.
When you talk about increasing the number of visitors to Mexico, what percentage of that goal is dedicated to meeting attendees? When I say that we want to increase by 15 percent the number of arrivals, we also have the objective of increasing —by the same amount—the spend. Meetings play a very important factor in our goals. In the case of meetings, the average spend is higher than that of the leisure traveler. In order for us to reach the objective of the spend, we need to increase the number of those meetings and their stay.