interviewed by REPORTUR.mxAlejandro Ramírez Tabche, president of the Mexican Council of the
Industria de Reuniones (COMIR) considers that in Mexico there is the challenge of working internationally to promote the country.
What indicators can you highlight regarding the participation of the events and conventions industry in Mexico?
The number of events we have in Mexico is more than 300,000 and the industry generates more than 1 million indirect jobs in our market. The industry has a share of 1.53% in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the immediately preceding year and these are the figures for the industry as a whole.
How is the segment expected to close this 2023?
In 2023, the meetings industry segment is expected to close already reaching the levels prior to 2019, which started the year very well and today presents a slight slowdown, but it is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels.
The amount that was for sale in 2019 had decreased by approximately 40% in 2020 and then decreased by 20% in 2021. We had some differences there to be able to recover the volume in the meetings industry that has been growing year after year. In 2022 we were almost at 80% of what the market value was in 2019 and this year we are going to reach 100% plus a little growth.
What destinations are the most developed speaking of the item?
Specifically if we talk about congresses and exhibitions, the big cities are definitely still number one, as is the case of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. If we talk about the subject of conventions and incentives, the Riviera Maya and Cancun are leaders and later we have some of the beaches as interesting sectors and we see it in: Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, which are the most relevant destinations in this segment.
How is Mexico located in terms of infrastructure for events and conventions?
The offer of venues for the Mexican market meets the needs; We need to invest more in sustainability and sustainability for the different venues and hotels that we have, but I believe that work is being done on it and on digitization. We also lack a bit of automation that little by little is advancing in the venues; there are several that are already very well prepared and Mexico’s infrastructure is quite good.
How can you summarize your achievements at the helm of COMIR and the challenges that lie ahead for the organization and industry in Mexico?
This year we had to face the post-pandemic and many units in the sector were able to face the situations that arose. There was a good response from each of the efforts that
We generated with the authorities to be able to see the reopening.
We have worked very hard on digital indicators to obtain valuable information from our sector, having the meetings industry barometer, which is a very good tool that will serve in the future and at this time to be able to measure and have statistics on our industry.
We generated the first more specific meetings industry political forum in these modern times; Important changes have been made in training and the training programs that we have in our National Congress of the Meetings Industry (CNIR) that will be held in Saltillo from August 16 to 18. In general, this association has been solidified as a leader and representative in all sectors of the meetings industry in this sector that is transversal.
What challenges lie ahead for COMIR and for the industry in general?
Obviously there are many pending tasks that must be addressed; one of them is promotion in our country. It is very important to be able to manage and be present at all international and relevant fairs, which are no more than five, in which we must be and have lost presence. It remains for us to actively manage our participation in some of the states so that they are present in this promotion that we are talking about and continue to consolidate the sector and represent it.
