The president of the Association of Hotels of Yucatan, Héctor Navarrete Medina, announced the incorporation of four new members: the Hyatt, Fiesta Americana, Presidente Intercontinental and Holiday Inn…
MERIDA – The announcement was made this week during a Christmas convivial offered by the Hotel Association to the media at the Hyatt Hotel. Receiving the distinctive plaque of the association were the Secretary of Tourism Development of the State Government, Saúl Ancona Salazar, and the managers of the Hyatt Regency, Richard Westell; of the Fiesta Americana, Maripaz Martínez; of the Intercontinental Presidente, Heriberto Jaime, and of the Holiday Inn, Enrique Gómez Saavedra.
Navarrete Medina said that the growth in hotel occupancy is very good, but the average overnight stay of 1.9 days is not enough. Now, business executives usually only carry out their work and leave. On the other hand, convention tourism has an average stay of four days: the day of arrival, the two days of meetings and the day of departure.
Hector Navarrete Medina President od Yucatan Hotels Association at Merida Hyatt Regnecy Hotel in the Breakfast of the Yucatan Hiotels Asociation (Photo José Avila, Diario de Yucatán)
The executive considered that the electronic platform of Airbnb lodging reservations will also help tourism in Yucatan because its clients make reservations of four days on average, will contribute from $6 to $7 million pesos by charging the 3% of the Hotel Tax and its global impact will favor the tourist destination.
The Association of Hotels is designing its own platform of rooms’ reservations that will be called Hoteles Yucatán, which is a globalizer that will position Yucatan in the tourist world, he added. That search engine will be ready in January and in February or March it will become an application for travelers to book from their mobile devices. This system will cost around one million pesos and is a Yucatecan technology. It is already used by 50% of the hotels, but now it will used by all the affiliates of the AHY.
On the other hand, Ancona Salazar informed that at the beginning of January the Mixed Trust will be ready to administer, operate and promote the new International Convention Center of Merida.
That body would not be an institute, but a trust; this autonomous figure is necessary to give it legal and commercial certainty and to meet the expectations planned since its inception: that it be a profitable, sustainable business model and a pivot that drives meeting tourism in Mérida and in Yucatán in general, said the official.
Source: www.yucatan.com.mx
