The Advantage Travel Partnership has unveiled Mexico as the destination for its annual industry conference next year (May 15-18, 2024).
A recent Advantage survey revealed the country is one of the top three long-haul destinations for UK travellers for 2024.
The three-night event will be hosted at the five-star Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort and Spa, in partnership with the Palladium Hotel Group.
The resort on the Costa Mujeres beach, near Cancun, has facilities including three pools, a spa and seven à la carte restaurants. Conference delegates will be hosted in the resort’s junior suites.
The consortium said Mexico was chosen because of its prominence as a key destination for leisure and business travellers.
“Costa Mujeres is highly regarded as a bucket-list destination, and Mexico is generally seen as an important and growing business travel destination, attracting annually nearly half a million business trips,” said Advantage.
The programme of events will include business sessions and social activities, with Saturday May 18 seeing delegates participating in a ‘giving back’ activity or taking part in an environmental project.
Delegates will also be able to opt to stay an additional night and depart on the Sunday to explore the destination further or spend more time working on local projects with a positive impact.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive at Advantage, said: “The power of travel lies in its ability to create positive change, fostering cultural understanding, promoting peace and inspiring communities worldwide, and at Advantage we want our annual conference to reflect all of this and more.
“For the first time, the conference will be a global event for our global partners and members.
“Our members are facilitators of travel, drivers of progress, contributing to a more compassionate, interconnected, and sustainable global society, and during our time together in Mexico we very much intend to focus on these key themes.
“We wanted to be ambitious about where we host delegates in 2024 and felt that it was time to take the conference long-haul again, after staging it in short-haul destinations since 2018.
“Mexico met all our criteria and is a destination that our members will be excited to visit.
“It’s a country thriving with unique culture and history and has the highest level of tourism in Latin America, giving visitors vast opportunities to explore or indulge in one of its many unique resorts right on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean.
“It’s also a growing business travel destination, one that has recovered well post-pandemic and is set to grow even further.”
Lo Bue-Said continued: “We made a commitment last year that our annual flagship conferences going forward will have a significant bias to tourism that has a positive impact and this will be the case when we meet in Mexico.
“As well as all the usual thought-provoking business sessions, workshops and networking opportunities, delegates will also have time to participate in local projects. The event will also incorporate all aspects of our eight-point sustainability pledge, that we announced at last year’s conference.
“As we get into the more detailed planning stages of the event, we will be working with a number of our supplier partners who have operations locally to ensure we can provide a host of activities that will give delegates a greater insight to the work that is taking place across the region to help the environment or the ability to spend time with locals, working on special projects.”
Steven Esom, Advantage chairman, added: “In true Advantage style, the decision to take the conference to Mexico is both bold and progressive.
“With the area of sustainability getting, quite rightly, higher on every business agenda, it’s great to see Julia and the team making sure this important issue is at the centre of the partnership’s conference plans and will play a key role in what delegates will experience while at the event.
“Our thanks to Palladium Hotels for their generous support in hosting our flagship event and we look forward to working with them to make it a resounding success.”
Joanne Peters, UK & Ireland senior business development manager at Palladium Hotels, commented: “We are over the moon to have been selected to host the Advantage 2024 conference and are so excited to be able to showcase our newest resort in Mexico, the Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort & Spa.
“Attendees will have the opportunity to take advantage of the whole resort, including seven à la carte restaurants, two show cooking restaurants and 24 bars, including the Xtra Time Sports Bar, and with Infinite Indulgence, with everything included.
“There’s also the wonderful Zentropia spa, four pools, a stunning white powdery sand beach, lots of entertainment and activities to enjoy, as well as the Rafa Nadal Tennis academy.
“We know the value of when delegates can really immerse themselves in the location fully, so there will be plenty of opportunity to really get to know the resort and discover the three different brands of hotels within it: Grand Palladium, Family Selection and the TRS Coral Hotel.”
Advantage member, Paul Hardwick, retail director at Fred Olsen Travel, said: “I am thrilled Advantage is taking the event long-haul again and in Mexico they have picked a popular and thriving destination.
“I am particularly excited to see that they will be running events where delegates can ‘give back’ to the local community as part of the conference which is a great initiative.
James Beagrie, Meon Valley managing director, added: “Advantage is the conference of the year. It is memorable and supports business opportunity and relationships with a wide array of influential content and for 2024, an impressive sustainable twist.
“Each conference we attend gifts us something unexpected and new.
“South America has become a hub for foreign investment and business start-ups and as business transforms in the post-Covid era, the need to keep on top of automation, innovation and supply becomes paramount.
“The travel ecosystems’ ability to promote sustainable recovery with all the right values and, the hospitality of Mexico as a destination will be the stuff of legend.”