We have a very high repeat factor. The last time we meas-

ured that, for every hundred people, 97 keep coming back. I can count on one hand the number of countries that have that repeat factor. At the same time, the challenge is, how do we get those people who have never been to Mexico to come to expe- rience the Mexican travel and tourism industry, our service, and our hospitality and our cultural offerings? And the best way to do that sometimes is through meetings.

Because some people who have never been to Mexico come for the first time as part of a convention or a meeting and they experience, for instance, Cancun, and they love it and they come back with their families. There are a lot of benefits to having more meetings in our country.

You mention Cancun, but what are some other, perhaps lesser-known areas that can host meetings? We have a large number of venues in Mexico. The needs of the meeting or convention would [determine] what I would recommend. Some meetings are looking more for the city- type of experience.We have Mexico City, Guadalajara has been very popular lately, and Monterrey. Those are the

Inadditionto rich history and culture, what cangroups expect interms of Mexico’s sustainability efforts? When I was in the private sector, I had it very clear that sus- tainability was a priority. You see that a lot in the private sec- tor. However, in the government, you don’t see a lot of promoters of sustainability. You find a lot of government leaders who talk about sustainability and climate change— when they leave the office. And why is that? Because it’s eas- ier to talk about that when you don’t have the responsibility for making the hard decisions. [Government leaders have to weigh whether to] allow [a particular] investment that will create jobs and bring benefits to the community [with] what happens with the natural resources. How do we find that balance? It is very difficult, no? That being said, I have to confess that I didn’t know that

On_the_Web

To watch a video of this interview, taped by CNTV, visit Convene’s blog at http://pcmaconvene.blogspot.com.

Mexico had a president who is totally committed to sustain- ability, to the point that I am amazed. Now that I work for President Felipe Calderón, I can tell you that every single mem- ber of the cabinet has objectives related to sustainability. In tourism, one of our three priorities is sustainability. And he reviews those with us frequently. For example, we have 174 protected areas in the country.We also have some very specific rules for new buildings, infrastructure, specifically in the tourist areas. You can build a resort and respect the mangrove trees, without impacting that environment. And now we’re doing a lot of sharing best practices, respecting our resources, respecting our environment.

three top large cities that I would say [host] events. Tijuana just hosted the Tijuana Innovadora [a two-week conference held this past October] with the participation of Al Gore and Larry King. At the same time, we have other locations that are not as

well known within the country, such as Zacatecas, Campeche, and Tabasco. It depends on the needs [of the group]. Something we’re going to be spending some time and effort on this year is segmentation, so that it is very clear for the meeting planner what we offer in the different venues. And based on their requirements, they can consider cities or destinations. This year, we are hosting theWorld Summit for the ATTA,

the Adventure Travel Trade Association, in a place that is not that well known for conventions—a little town, San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Chiapas [on Oct. 17–20]. It is beautiful and has a lot to offer in terms of the cultural experi- ence and adventure travel.

Convene’s recent Meetings Market Survey revealed that Mexico’s popularity as a meetings destination has not gone down in the last two years. But what do you say to groups who are concerned about drug violence in Mexico? We made the mistake in the government of leaving a gap in information—and I’ve seen that in many cases in the U.S. When you are not actively providing information, what hap- pens is that that [gap] is filled up with bad news. Yes, we do have a situation, and that’s a fact. It’s not some-

thing we’re going to hide. But the country is quite large. And the situation that we have—the vast majority of the incidents are in the border cities, and specifically in two of those border cities. It’s like saying, if you have a situation in New York, does that mean you’re not going to come to Las Vegas? Of course not. It’s the same thing as what’s going on in Mexico. We learned that we made a mistake because we were not

being proactive in communicating, and that’s something that we’re changing.We need to put out our facts and share exactly what is the situation in Mexico, because I truly believe there is a gap between reality and perception. For instance, I don’t know how many people know that our economy is doing well. Last year, we created over a million jobs in Mexico.We have recovered from the financial and economic crisis that we all suffered in 2009. It’s interesting that Mexico is doing better than the big countries.We need to be more out there, communicating our story.

70 pcmaconvene April 2011 www.pcma.org