COP IN: “The best example that I can give you [of Mexico’s viability as a meetings destination] is the COP16,” said Mexico Secretary of Tourism Gloria Guevara, referring to the United Nations Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention of Climate Change, held in Cancun on Nov. 29–Dec.10, where she and President Felipe Calderón (pictured above) each spoke.“We had 50,000 people from 197 countries, and not one incident. To organize an event like that is not an easy task, when you have people from so many countries with so many needs. There were more than 25 heads of state and 200 minis- ters. The feedback was outstanding.”
For meeting planners, I would ask them to contact our
team inWashington.We have a team dedicated to serve them and to provide the support and to make sure that they have the facts and the data, so they can take that information to their managers, CFO, purchasing heads, to specifically explain Mex- ico’s story. What’s going on; what’s our reality. And share with them also so they understand the value they will get when they hold their meetings in Mexico. The incidents that we have had are among [drug] cartels,
and zero tourists have been impacted—by that I mean [no tourists have] been a part of what’s going on. These are not tourist attacks. It is fighting among the cartels because Presi- dent Calderón is very determined to shut them down—not
only the trafficking to the U.S., but also their activities within the country. What you see in the news is the reaction to that. But in the rest of the country, we’re fine.We have seen an
increase in the number of travelers from every single national- ity, including the U.S. Compared to 2009, we have seen 500,000 more Americans that came to Mexico [from January to November 2010]. When you compare the total numbers versus 2008, we have 100 percent more Brazilians, 50 percent more people from Spain, 30 percent more people from the U.K. And Canadians: In 2010, we had 1.1 million Canadians [visit]. There’s a reason why these people are coming to Mex- ico. Because they have a great experience, they get a lot for their money. They like the service, they like the food. By the way, our gastronomy is the only one in the world that has been namedWorld Heritage by UNESCO. [The UNESCO commit- tee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage has inscribed Mexican Cuisine on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.] When you consider all of that and the fact that it’s a very
short flight fromthe U.S. to Mexico and the weather that we have usually during the entire year is very nice, people keep traveling to Mexico. The ones that go to Mexico keep coming back.We need to increase the pie and invite the ones that have never been in Mexico to come and enjoy that experience.
Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene. pcma convene April 2011 71