Mexico
Going global,
down in
Guadalajara
Mexico’s Pearl City is making a strong
global pitch for expo and events business
ith authentic
experiences at the
top of millennials’
shopping list, Mexico’s
second city of Guadalajara is fast
building a reputation and the bed
stock (28,000 and counting) for
business events travellers.
Claimed as the home of the
mariachi, tequila and the charrería
(rodeo), Guadalajara is ‘going global’
as it markets itself to host increasing
numbers of major events.
Host of the Pan American Games
in 2011, the city is already home to
the Guadalajara International Film
Festival and the world’s second largest
book fair (FIL).
Known as Mexico’s Pearl of the
West, the city also has the country’s
biggest venue jewel in the shape of
Expo Guadalajara, with 100,000sqm
of space.
The facility hosts 500 events and 2m
visitors per year and its President tells
EW (p60) about big expansion plans.
PALCCO is another exhibition
centre in the city with a strong track
record and contemporary facilities.
Guadalajara has many sectoral
strong suits: IT, fashion, footwear,
jewellery and furniture are at the top
of the list.
The city even has a quarter named
‘Zona Expo’, which includes 30 hotels
servicing the events venues.
The destination is steeped in real
Mexican tradition, close to the agave
fields, where visitors can, after
exhibition hours of course, follow the
spirit distillation process through to
50
Issue 6 2019
Below: Expo
Guadalajara’s Salon
Jalisco
the end in the nearby town of Tequila.
The Jose Cuervo La Rojeña distillery
even has its own events spaces and
masterclasses are available too.
Guadalajara is a young, vibrant city
with a growing festival culture, much
of it based around the Akron stadium,
home of top football side, Chivas.
If Cancun has been thought of as
Latin American-lite for the North
American market, then Guadalajara
and the surrounding province of
Jalisco are the real deal.
Going global…
Gustavo Staufert, CEO of Guadalajara
Convention Bureau (CVB), has plans
to take the city truly global for events.
He told EW his CVB was the was the
first bureau in Latin America.
The CVB is funded by a city tourism
tax of 3% and Staufert is pushing hard
to distil his own Mexican meetings
and events ‘mescal’ mix.
A successful staging of the Pan
American Games and bids won for
the Astronautical Congress and ITU
have been encouraging.
“We noticed we had all the furniture
to hold world-class events (as well
as furniture fairs) and we wanted a
strategy to go beyond just tactics.
“We decided Europe was the main
market, a continent with strong roots
in culture, just like our city.”
Guadalajara has its own silicon
valley, where companies like IBM and
Hewlett Packard sit side beside start-
ups – all feeding into the exhibition
and events narrative.
Guadalajara has, unfortunately,
been touched by recent narco-
related violence, although the list
of multinationals calling the city
home does not seem to have been
deterred by this. Staufert is certainly
aiming high. “We want to become the
city of international MICE business
and certainly the capital for Latin
America.”
Guadalajara’s
greatest
showman
EW’s editor visits Expo
Guadalajara and meets
its President Guillermo
Cervantes
he MICE industry
in Mexico was born
with Expo Guadalajara,
says its President
Guillermo Cervantes.
A shoe manufacturer originally,
Cervantes came into the world of
exhibitions as his sector and chamber
of commerce sought a modern venue
in which to do their business.
“I remember our shoe
manufacturers’ chamber would run
our tradeshows in hotels, parking
lots, or any state-owned hall or lobby
area available. It was the same for our
business colleagues in the jewellery
and furniture sectors, as well as in
many other chambers.
The city got together and the governor
at the time provided some funding for
the launch of the Expo centre.
The centre was built on what
had been a ranch and began with
10,000sqm 30 years ago.
Gradually other entrepreneurs,
organisations and churches came on
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk