Yucatan remains in the sights of the world’s convention and congress tourism, so this year, the state could be placed in the top 5 national convention tourism destinations, which last year left profits exceeding 6 billion pesos.
The president of the Mexican Association of Professionals in Fairs, Exhibitions, Congresses and Conventions (Amprofec) in the south-southeast region, Gonzalo Novelo Luján, pointed out that the meetings activity generates a distributed economic dynamic that ranges from the rental of hotel rooms to the rental of an exhibition hall and the lease of everything necessary to carry out each of the events.
He added that, for this reason, it is important to continue promoting Yucatan as an entity capable of hosting the most important events in Mexico and the world, so that if both the private sector and state and municipal authorities work together, the entity will become one of the top five national destinations for attracting congresses, conventions and expositions.
This important segment of tourism showed an upturn in Yucatan; in 2022 alone, more than 230 meetings of this nature were held in Merida, so it can be seen that the vocation of the state allows operators to have good expectations to continue growing in 2023.
In addition, he recalled that the congress and convention industry generates economic dynamism in the state, since tourists in this industry not only attend the meeting in question, but also use a hotel, transportation and restaurant services, among other value chains related to this economic activity.
Jorge Lerma Nava, Undersecretary of Sustainable Tourism Development of Sefotur, stated that in 2022, the 200,000 people who attended congresses and conventions in the state generated a revenue of 5 billion pesos.
Furthermore, he pointed out that the entity doubled the number of events of this type with respect to the previous year, with 234 of them, compared to 114 in 2021, and said that for this year, they will seek to increase the number of congresses and conventions, to also consolidate in sports and religious events that accumulate a large number of opportunities to increase hotel occupancy and revenue for a broad sector of the population.
“Another opportunity that will be sought from this year is to take pre and post-congress events to the municipalities, with a greater condition for the development of service providers, with visits and activities in haciendas, beaches, natural areas and archaeological sites,” he said.
He stated that the diversification of tourism in Yucatan has allowed for greater benefits for the sector, from the gastronomic segments, cruises, congress and convention events, and incentives that balance the seasons in the months of lower hotel occupancy.
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