The Mayan ruins in Tulum — giant monuments of stone, in the form of temples, pyramids and palaces — are quite a draw for attendees curious about this architectural wonder. Courtesy of Visit Mexico

Mexico is an ideal destination for meeting planners and attendees alike,” says Stacy Roberts, senior vice president of operations, for Global DMC Partners. “Thanks to a national culture that is deeply rooted in warm, authentic hospitality, the travel industry naturally excels with groups from a service perspective, whether budget or luxury.”

Roberts is not alone in her praise of the excellent value, diverse offerings and air accessibility Mexico offers, and a growing number of meeting planners are discovering America’s southern neighbor as a smart alternative to domestic destinations.

“Mexico is an easy sell with lots of flight options to the major tourist destinations and reasonable airfares,” suggests Melissa DeLeon, president and owner of MTI Events. “The large number of all-inclusive resorts keeps the competition strong — not only for pricing but also for the quality of the food, rooms, service and the amenities offered.”

Denise Frost, corporate travel advisor/groups & incentive travel for Central Travel, calls Mexico, “An affordable destination that offers great golf and excellent food,” adding, “They’re the top two important items for our trip on behalf of Spartan Chemical Company.”

Los Cabos

Frost handles the arrangements for the company’s Spartan Top Ten gathering, which rewards top performers as well as brings in home office sales management for a meeting and awards event. In February, Spartan Chemical used Los Cabos for its 64-attendee meeting, a destination that is on a three-year rotation for the annual event. She notes the company’s owners are very familiar with Hacienda Del Mar Los Cabos, Autograph Collection from personal visits, as regular guests of the property’s restaurants, and from being members of the nearby golf course.

“Los Cabos offers direct flights from at least half of our attendees’ home airports,” says Frost. “Cabo continues to remain in the rotation due to the reliable weather, challenging golf, great food, unique sightseeing and nice resorts like the Hacienda del Mar with its affordable rates. The resort also allows for spectacular whale watching during the winter months — right from the beach, the restaurants and hotel room balconies.”

The 270-room Hacienda del Mar is reminiscent of a seaside village, sprawling across 11 acres overlooking the Sea of Cortez, and designed with a combination of traditional Mexican Colonial elements and Mediterranean touches. The property features about 17,300 sf of meeting and event space. Six restaurants, five bars, five swimming pools, a spa and a fitness center round out facilities.

Spartan likes to gather as large a group as possible for dining. Frost says the resort’s two restaurants seated 30-plus guests each, and used family-style menus, with limited selections. “But they were delicious, and right off their normal menus,” Frost adds. The week-long visit is always kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday with a barbecue-style dinner, using an outdoor space equipped with large screen TVs and speakers provided by the AV department.

“Hacienda del Mar has limited outdoor venues, so they set up around one side of the Delfines Pool, which provided a gorgeous view to kick off the week.”

Frost notes that the resort’s concierge desk provided excellent support during their stay, as well as prior to arrival, with spa and dinner reservations, both onsite and off.

“The area offers great deep-sea fishing — for marlin, as well as light tackle fishing closer to the shore for mahi mahi. As a group, we do not book anything off-site other than golf, however most of the attendees go into Cabo San Lucas for tours of shopping and dining on our free night. No one had any issues and enjoyed everything they did off-site.”

With 45 different meeting hotels and more than 11,000 rooms, the tip of Baja California is known for having some of the best meeting space in Mexico, and additions come online regularly. Los Cabos has a dryer climate than the country’s other coastal resort destinations, and it is home to some of Mexico’s top-rated resorts.

For DeLeon, Los Cabos worked well as an incentive destination for American Tire Distributors (ATD), because the group is located in the U.S. West and Southwest, and flight schedules were ideal. They wanted an all-inclusive resort and looked to the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos.

“This was their first year operating this incentive and we wanted a property that knew the U.S. market and operated well for large groups,” explains DeLeon. “Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos is an excellent property that understands the American market, our timelines, dietary restrictions and can flex as the clients’ needs change. I have used this property several times and the branding opportunities and function space for group events are fabulous. They have a lagoon area where you can brand the (floating golf) balls and project the client’s logo on the buildings, so no matter what direction the attendees look they are surrounded by the client logo.”

The 591-room Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos features 35,000 sf of event space, including the 9,687-sf Grand Peninsula Ballroom and the Grand Theater, with seating for up to 1,078 attendees. With its seven restaurants, a spa and a roster of included activities daily, Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos is also the closest beachfront resort to Los Cabos International Airport.

“Everyone who wanted a king bed received one,” says DeLeon. “This group is primarily couples and the hotel has the ability to turn their rooms with two double beds into king beds, which greatly reduced the number of complaints on room types. The client also wanted to add tequila tasting and cigar rolling to one reception — the hotel sourced and set up for us.”

For the March event, ATD’s agenda primarily kept the 240-attendee group on property for five days. “We work with IVI DMC Enterprises for transportation, tours and service projects,” explains DeLeon, adding that the DMC sold tours for those who wished to explore Los Cabos.

“They have offices in Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo, and their commitment to excellence matches our own. When it comes to providing 5-star service, we want to partner with both a hotel and a DMC that will provide the first-class experience that our clients expect.”

Cancún

For another recent incentive trip, for customers of Seed Consultants, a corn and soybean seed distributor, DeLeon used Hyatt Ziva Cancún for a 165-person event. The client is based in the upper midwest and northeastern U.S., and Cancún offered both easy airlift and warm weather in January.

“It had also been several years since the client had been to Cancún,” says DeLeon. “The Hyatt Ziva Cancún offers an adults-only tower, Turquoize, which is where the group was booked, but our guests were allowed to bring children — the resort could accommodate both requirements for this client.”

Located at the punta — the corner of the Cancún peninsula — pointing into the Caribbean Sea, the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancún has 547 suites featuring contemporary island decor, hand crafted furnishings and picturesque sea views. Rooms in the Turquoize Tower come with a concierge-butler, and DeLeon notes the attendees reveled in the personalized attention and service.

“The menu offerings and entertainment options for group events was excellent,” says DeLeon. “The client loved the energy, restaurants, rooms, as well as the service, and he particularly mentioned the professionalism of the site inspection when making his decision.”

As with the Cabo incentive, the planner had IVI DMC handle ground arrangements, including transfers and tours. “The client liked the region’s cultural, ecological and adventure activities, and offered hosted activities to both Riviera Maya and Isla Mujeres.”

Both of the Hyatt Ziva properties are part of the portfolio for Florida-based Playa Resorts, which is the owner or management company for 11 hotels in Mexico, along with all-inclusives in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

Josh Brown, owner of the Georgia-based Josh Brown Company, says there’s “inherent value” in doing events in Mexico, but he especially likes Cancún for business events.

“For large conventions or incentives there’s good airlift, it’s centrally located for people coming in nationwide, and it’s less expensive than Cabo or Puerto Vallarta — the competition keeps the rates down,” suggests Brown. “When you try to put together a convention in Las Vegas, you spend $350 to $400 on the room, plus $250 per person on F&B, and then add alcohol on top of that. At the Hilton Cancún, an All-Inclusive Resort, we paid $600 a night and got double occupancy. If you try to base that event in Las Vegas, you’re going to exceed that number before you even get to alcohol.”

In January, Brown handled back-to-back annual conventions for two large home services franchise companies at the 715-room Hilton Cancún. The companies’ CEOs are friends, and they were able to share staging costs — the first event drew 700, the second had 500 attendees.

“One paid for setup, the other for tear down, and we brought in a 15-person band from Atlanta, so they only had to pay for the travel once,” adds Brown. Except for a staff dinner off-property, all events were kept at the resort, which Brown says helped keep everyone sequestered.

“Everything’s there, and it provides good camaraderie — everyone’s always running into one another at the bars and restaurants,” says Brown. By contrast, the companies’ president and CEO were placed at the 173-room Waldorf Astoria Cancún, immediately next door. “It gives them a bit of a break, they’re not running into their people hour in and out,” explains Brown. “You’re talking about a 4-star experience next to 5-star, with a wonderful convention space in between.”

Located 10 miles south of the Cancún International Airport, the Hilton Cancún opened in 2021. It features an almost 70,000 sf convention center and includes the 18,718-sf Azul Ballroom. Twelve diverse dining options cover a range of international tastes, and guests have access to the Waldorf Astoria Spa next door.

Brown advises planners eyeing the resort to lay out the schedule as best as possible and detail it in the contract. “Make sure you have a clear picture of what supplemental costs are, especially for outdoor events — cover all those eventualities,” he says.

The all inclusive Hilton Tulum Riviera Maya resort is a natural sanctuary and sits directly on the white sandy beach. Courtesy Photo

He also says it’s often worth the extra work to help clients reclaim the VAT tax. “The hard part is doing all the paperwork — not everyone knows how to do it. But you can spend $100,000 on AV and lighting and staging and then get 16% of it back.”

The Yucatan has a much-anticipated new airport: Tulum’s Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport. Historically, travelers have accessed the fast-growing resort areas around Riviera Maya and Tulum via the Cancún airport, 72 miles north.

Puerto Vallarta

Experiencing its own surge of visitors, Puerto Vallarta International Airport will open its new terminal in 2025, marking the first Net Zero-certified terminal in Latin America. The two-story, LEED-certified structure is designed to reduce energy consumption by 40%, and water consumption by 35%, while preserving 50% of the area’s ancient trees. The terminal is also fully accessible for those with disabilities. Other enhancements include a new VIP area, restaurant, fast-food outlets and a dining area. A new security process will increase capacity by 125% and double the checked baggage inspection points, while outdoor terraces will be a first not found at any other Mexican airport.

Puerto Vallarta’s airport serves more than just the famed beach city — it’s also the gateway to several fast-growing resort areas to the north.

“We chose Conrad Punta de Mita as our host property because it is a newer hotel and offers more rooms and larger meeting space while still delivering five-star service,” explains Roberts. “Other hotels in the area are half the size in terms of the number of rooms, so the Conrad is particularly ideal for larger groups and incentives.”

In considering locations, Roberts says Global DMC Partners was also impressed by the local community’s opportunities for giving back, from environmental and conservation programs, helping kids and families through educational programs, a local community center, a library and the arts. “With our strong focus on CSR and sustainability, we felt this was a bright, vibrant community that truly cares about its people and environment and one where we could truly make a difference,” Roberts adds.

The event, Connection, will take place in June and is expected to draw about 175 attendees. The resort will welcome Global DMC Partners with 54,000 sf of indoor and outdoor meeting space including the Tukipa Ballroom, one of the largest ballrooms in the region, measuring 9,900 sf and divisible into seven breakout rooms.

“We make it a point to immerse ourselves in the local destination as thoroughly as possible,” says Roberts. “As the largest global network of independent DMCs, of course we wouldn’t hold a meeting without utilizing our local DMC partner. In Punta de Mita, the excellence extends well beyond its hotels. The destination boasts numerous attractions, from quaint surf towns to vibrant shopping and dining districts. We have planned a cultural evening at a local ranch, water activities, dine-around options and experiences at other properties such as the W Punta de Mita, with one of the arguably most Instagrammable hotspots in Mexico. This variety is immensely appealing for our diverse audience.”

Roberts acknowledges a primary challenge her group must address is perceptions surrounding safety in Mexico. “While we did feature a government representative at our 2019 event in Cancún, to highlight the nation’s efforts in this matter, it remains an ongoing question raised by our clients,” says Roberts.

“The majority of tourist destinations in Mexico are exceptionally safe. Local DMCs are again important as they possess valuable insights into the safety measures within each destination. Mexico is a perfect fit for our global audience, as there are no visa-related concerns and the destination offers a wide variety of activities. This ensures a unique, enjoyable and enticing experience for all attendees.”

Mexico City

For Tara H. Guenthner, owner and creative planner behind Hipp Inspired Experiences, the challenge was threading a very particular geographical need. Her client, Washington University School of Medicine, is conducting global research on a form of Alzheimer’s disease — they required a location for drug trials, but specifically geared for groups from Central and South America.

“They tested the drug all over the world before taking it to the market. There was an event in the U.S., another in Europe; this one was for Latin America,” explains Guenthner. Other options considered included Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and San Jose, Costa Rica. Ultimately, Mexico was chosen based on the amount of travel time — not just for the doctors and nurses from the U.S. who would administer the medicine and capture the data, but for subjects coming from Colombia, Europe, Argentina and Ireland. “We wanted a destination served by as many direct flights as possible.”

Two hotels in the city were considered, and the Hilton Mexico City Reforma won out. “The hotel is a super modern facility with a wonderful meeting space, and located in an area where we felt was safe,” explains Guenthner. “They greeted us warmly for our site visit, and the hospitality at the hotel was very good — a nice representation of the city. We could walk to dinner and feel safe at night, and the location was just 25 minutes from the airport, so we could get in and out easily.”

“Don’t be intimidated by Mexico City,” adds Guenthner. “It’s colorful, the food is fabulous, the people are nice, and the tech skills were probably the best we experienced last year. Being from the U.S. and speaking only English, it was slightly intimidating, but they really bridged the gap.” C&IT