The first International Luxury Travel Market Americas event took place in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, with the objective of strengthening Mexico’s tourism promotion efforts and consolidating the country’s position as a leading luxury travel destination, according to Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism.
The specialist industry event hosted more than 400 exhibitors from 40 countries with "hosted buyers" in the luxury travel sector to generate business opportunities. More than 7,500 business meetings were held during the four-day event.
In August, Gloria Guevara, Secretary of Tourism in Mexico was honored with “Virtuoso Tourism Board of the Year,” at Virtuoso’s annual conference in Las Vegas.
Guevara also released the Sixth Government Report on Tourism. A period of strong growth in domestic and international tourism arrivals is recorded in the report, in addition to public and private sector investment in tourism over the past six years. Tourism, which constitutes more than nine percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product, is a national priority.
The report details five key priorities, domestic tourism growth; international tourism growth; public tourism investment; private tourism investment and market diversification.
Secretary Guevara said that tourism, a corner stone of the Mexican economy is a truly a national priority. Government has forged a strategic alliance between legislators, bureaucrats, business, unions and academics, thereby establishing a solid basis to ensure the future development of the industry.
Mexico aggressively pursued a market diversification strategy to reduce dependence on the United States market, attracting tourists from a wide range of other countries, including Brazil, China, Russia, Canada and Korea.
Riviera Maya joins an elite group of luxury destinations as the host of ILTM Americas, including Cannes and Shanghai that receive the regional editions of ILTM each year. A key factor in the selection of Mexico as the host of the event was the connectivity of the Cancún-Riviera Maya region.
Alison Gilmore, General Manager of ILTM, said Mexico is an important destination for luxury travel. “We are honoured to have been able to work with our partners in Mexico; we have achieved a successful ILTM Americas and look forward to the 2013 edition of the event.”