Mexico City Aims To Please Corp. Meeting Attendees
<B>Mexico City Aims To Please Corp. Meeting Attendees</B>
By Robert Selwitz
With a new president, improved air quality and significantly reduced street crime, Mexico City's appeal as a business travel destination is on the rise.
As such, the city is undergoing a major effort to upgrade its meeting and exhibition venues. The Expo Mexico Santa Fe is scheduled to open in March, with about 343,000 square feet of exhibition area and more than 80,000 square feet of conference room space. In addition, the Convention Center of the Americas is expected to make its debut in November, with 24 conference rooms and one ballroom that will accommodate more than 3,000 people.
Meanwhile, Exhibimex just re-opened with 107,000 square feet of flexible space, which can be used for one large exhibition or divided into three smaller meeting rooms. With the capacity for more than 1,000 attendees, according to Enriqueta Lavin, Mexico City Tourism Authority's new director of meetings and conventions, "It is an ideal location for everything from small meetings to grand conventions. And Exhibimex offers complimentary technical assistance to exhibitors."
To house the expected new rush of function attendees and business travelers, Mexico City also is celebrating several new hotel openings and major lodging renovations.
New entries include the Hilton Aeropuerto and Holiday Inn Select Zocalo. The 129-room Hilton Airport is the first to be located inside Benito Juarez International Airport. It features easy checkin at a concierge desk near arrivals. Rooms have two phone lines, voicemail and Internet connections.
The 115-room Holiday Inn Select is ensconced in a six-story historic building and offers rooms and suites with dataports, and meeting rooms with capacity for 350 attendees.
Another recent opening was the 96-room Holiday Inn Oriente, located five miles from the airport. Primarily targeting groups, the property offers five conference rooms with a capacity for 400 people, a business center and free shuttle service to and from the airport.
The 203-room Marriott Renaissance in the exclusive Polanco district will open in May. The hotel will include an executive level lounge, a rooftop heath club and 24-hour business center.
And before year-end, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts plans to open a $54 million, 464-room, five-star hotel along Avenida Juarez. The Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel and Convention Center will offer 50,000 square feet of meeting space, the greatest amount of hotel function space in Mexico City.
As for renovations, Grupo Meliá plans to spend $6 million upgrading the former Crowne Plaza Reforma. The centrally located 454-room high-rise will have 30 additional guest rooms, a business center, new spa, five meeting rooms and a covered swimming pool.
In other developments, W Hotels, a member of the Starwood Hotels Group, expects to open a Mexico City site next year. The first W in Latin America, it will be located near Chapultapec Park and will feature 239 guest rooms, meeting space, a business center and a spa and fitness center.
Inter-Continental Hotels also is reportedly investing $40 million in the construction of an all-suite tower adjacent to the Presidente Inter-Continental Hotel in the Polanco district.
In other news, the airport has commenced a $25 million project to add eight new departure lounges that are expected to increase the capacity of the international departure wing by 10 percent to 12 percent.
Also under construction is another parking garage and a connection corridor between the garage and airport. Work is expected to wrap up before year-end.