Monterrey presented its venues, connectivity and attractions at IBTM Americas

In this context, Travel2latam spoke with David Manllo, Director of OCV Monterrey, the Monterrey Convention and Visitors Bureau.

What activities does the Monterrey Convention and Visitors Bureau perform?

We are the official body in charge of attracting congresses, conventions, fairs, exhibitions or any type of event that takes place in the city that brings visitors and generates economic benefits.

As a government entity, we manage the lodging tax, which is paid by all guests who stay in a hotel, which is 3%. That percentage goes to our trust, and with it, we can do promotional campaigns, come to these fairs to have meetings with clients, but above all and very importantly, make economic proposals so that event organizers are encouraged to go to Monterrey to hold their event. So it is a win-win, because that tax generated by visitors is used and more visitors are attracted. It is a virtuous circle that has grown year after year, between 7% and 8%.

What is the reason for this growth?

Our hotel capacity and our congresses have grown, including the venues. Today we have three venues in Monterrey; Cintermex, Pabellón M and Show Center, apart from the many rooms that are also in the hotels, and this helps us a lot to have more offerings so that there are all kinds of events and fairs in the city.

How many attendees can they have? 

Cintermex, which is more than 30 years old, has 54,000 square meters, so 20,000 people can enter without any problem. There are fairs where they have exhibition floors of more than 20,000 square meters, more than 500 or 600 stands, and any type of large international or national event can fit there. We have had world events at Cintermex in the summer, such as karate and volleyball championships, and we have also had manufacturing fairs with more than 450 stands. So Cintermex is the largest, the most important. It is made exclusively for large events, but they also have rooms for 20 or 30 people, they have everything, it is a convention center made for that.

What difference does Monterrey offer for a company to choose to hold its event there?

Monterrey is first and foremost a business city. It is called the industrial capital of Mexico, and it is the city where we have the most foreign and direct investment, and this ensures that we have large companies not only from Mexico but from all over the world. Another great advantage is that we have very good connectivity, since people come from all over the world to visit these companies, to train or to do business, and connectivity at a congress or convention is very important. We can get there directly from practically any important city in Mexico without having to go through Mexico City, Guadalajara or Cancun.

We have more than 36 direct cities, we have airlines like Viva Aerobus, Volaris, Aeromexico, but we also have direct connections to 16 cities in the United States. We connect with New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Las Vegas, etc. This is very good because if someone comes from Europe with a stopover in the US, they can get to Monterrey without any problem. 

We also connect with Europe, we have a direct flight with four frequencies a week to Madrid, and we connect with Colombia and Panama directly. 

In addition, there are venues to choose from and we have a hotel industry that has grown enormously. Fifteen years ago, Monterrey had hotels run solely by local entrepreneurs. Today, we have JW Marriott, Westin, Hilton, Fiesta Americana, that is, we have hotels from international chains.

In fact, a Presidente Intercontinental hotel is about to open, this adds to the offer we already had such as Quinta Real, Camino Real, Fiesta Americana, NH, and we went from 14,500 rooms to more than 17,000.

Today we can offer travelers international chain hotels, local hotels, and there are hotels for all types, spread throughout the city. This is very important because you can now guarantee good venues, sponsors with the companies we have there, good hospitality and entertainment. 

Monterrey offers great gastronomy. We are famous for having some of the best beef in all of Mexico, so there are some very good beef and goat al pastor restaurants, which is one of our most traditional dishes. This year, we have two Michelin Star restaurants for the first time in history, with only six cities in all of Mexico having this recognition. This ensures that we have a lot of variety with more than 2,000 tourist-quality restaurants throughout Monterrey, where you can eat seafood, Italian food, French food, and all kinds of other foods.

Do they have good nightlife and entertainment options?

Sure. There are bars and restaurants with live shows and we also have, for example, Broadway plays that come directly from New York with the original actors and in their language. We are the only city that has the certification to bring Broadway plays to Show Center, which is a beautiful performance center that seats around 2,500 people. Plays like Cats come here and it is really a great attraction. 

Another thing that characterizes us is our music festivals. We have one of the largest in Mexico, Pa'l Norte, which brings together around 300,000 people in one weekend. This attracts many people from around the area and from other parts of Mexico, including the United States. 

We also have mountains, and ecotourism is also very popular. We have rivers, waterfalls and caves. Also notable is the Fundidora Park, which is 144 hectares where we have the Santa Lucía promenade with a river that is the longest artificial river in Latin America that runs through the historic center of Monterrey. This was made so that you can enjoy the historic center leading to the Fundidora Park, where there are more than 30 activities that you can do.

How old is Monterrey?

Monterrey is 429 years old, it was founded by Diego Montemayor, and historically and culturally it has a lot to offer. We have a Sephardic culture, that's where the goat stew comes from. The goat stew is something that the Jews who came to Monterrey found, replacing suckling pig, which is a food that they found and is cooked over charcoal in the countryside, it is very famous and traditional.

What industries are the strongest in the city?

The auto parts manufacturing industry and other types of products as well. We have none other than Ternium, an Argentine steel company that came to establish itself, but we had the largest steel company in Latin America from 1900 to 1986. Later, due to economic reasons, this steel company went bankrupt, but there was still a lot of work around the steel industry, Ternium came, and now they have a very large industry.