Mexico Fills A Niche And Offers A Mix Of Options
<B> Mexico Fills A Niche And Offers A Mix Of Options</B>
By Frank Rosci
Recent developments in Mexico's extensive business travel and meetings infrastructure have made being south of the border more productive, pleasant and popular for individual business travelers and corporate meeting attendees.
According to the Mexico Ministry of Tourism, "more than 100 hotels and resorts around the country provide business services, including meeting and convention conference rooms, multilingual secretarial services, state-of-the-art communications, computer networks and satellite TV."
Business travel has become more hassle free as well, since visas were eliminated for U.S. and Canadian business travelers in 1994. The entry process has been streamlined to merely filling out a short business travel card issued with no fee by Mexican consulates, travel agencies, tour operators and airlines, the Ministry reported.
And to accommodate these travelers, several hotels are finishing up their new, or ongoing, construction projects.
The 140-room Four Seasons Punta Mita is set for a May 30 opening. Located within the 1,000-acre Punta Mita Resort and only 30 minutes by car from Puerto Vallarta International Airport, the resort's 113 guestrooms and 27 suites will offer two-line phones, computer/fax connections (in-room fax machines in suites), complimentary daily newspaper and coffee maker with complimentary coffee.
For groups, the resort will offer three meeting rooms--holding 20 classroom style, 36 for receptions--and a 2,600-sq.-ft. ballroom will be able to accommodate up to 225 attendees for receptions and 175 for banquets. Outdoor functions may be held at several locations on the property. Two restaurants, the 150-seat Aramara and 80-seat Ketsi, a 19-hole championship golf course, an exercise room and a variety of water sports also will be available.
Developments at Palmilla, a resort in the Los Cabos (The Capes) region 1,000 miles south of San Diego and Tijuana, include a new conference center, the Palmilla Beach Club and The Spa at Palmilla, all set to break ground this year.
A new golf course, Ocean Nine, will open this spring and join the resort's existing 18-hole Palmilla Golf Club. A 120-seat restaurant for lunch and dinner is slated for a midsummer opening.
With 5,000 square feet of meeting space in eight indoor and open-air spaces and rooms, the resort, listed among the best in Mexico, is the centerpiece of a 900-acre master-planned golf community. It is situated overlooking the Sea of Cortez and accommodates groups of up to 20 attendees in the Coral and Cascada boardrooms, and up to 140 attendees for receptions or banquets in the Playa Fiesta area.
Palmilla's 24 guestrooms and 90 suites, all in lowrise hacienda-style buildings with ocean views, feature telephones, dataports, voice mail and personal safes. Breakfast, lunch and dinner room service is available daily from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. A fitness center, two tennis courts, a small croquet lawn and a water sports center for scuba diving, kayaking and deep-sea fishing excursions also are available.
"Business travelers and meeting groups account for about 20 percent of Palmilla's bookings, with a high percentage of repeat business among them," said Christopher Bush, vice president of operations at Rockresorts International, which is based in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. "The kinds of groups that comprise Palmilla's meeting business are high-level executives in small groups, incentive trips and retreats mostly from California, Texas, the Midwest and some Eastern states."
Elsewhere in Los Cabos, a new 359-room Fiesta Americana Hotel is scheduled for completion in May. The property will offer convention facilities and 250 timeshare units. And the 315-room Melia Cabo Real Beach and Golf Resort has started a $2.5 million renovation project to update its guestrooms and add a fitness center.