Cancún, Qroo. The Quintana Roo Tourism Secretariat (Sedetur) acknowledged that none of the three venues proposed for the 2014 Tianguis Turístico meet the conditions to host this event, so there will be three different locations.
Juan Carlos González Hernández, head of Sedetur, stated that there are 80 million pesos available for the Tianguis, in addition to significant involvement from Grupo Xcaret and Grupo Palace in the event’s logistics and organization.
The venues where the event will take place are the Cancún Center, located in Cancún’s hotel zone; the Lakám Center fairgrounds; and finally, the 10,000 square meter auditorium currently under construction at the Moon Palace hotel, owned by the Yucatecan entrepreneur of Lebanese origin, José Chapur.
González Hernández admitted that the preparations for the Tianguis Turístico highlighted that both Cancún and the Riviera Maya lack a convention center large enough to host an event of the magnitude of the Tianguis Turístico.
“We don’t have a suitable convention center; the one we have is somewhat outdated to host the Tianguis on a single floor. The Lakám Center has the capacity but lacks some details, and the Moon Palace, even with the venue being built, will also lack the capacity to hold the entire event in one place.”
The proposal presented by the local government to the federal Secretariat of Tourism (Sectur) is that, due to the lack of a space with the necessary dimensions and technical requirements, the inauguration of the Tianguis should take place at the Moon Palace hotel, in addition to a welcome cocktail at the Xcaret park.
Business meetings, stand and pavilion installations, as well as the bulk of the activities, would be held at the Lakám Center, located along the Cancún-Playa del Carmen highway, 10 kilometers from Cancún airport.
Lastly, the Cancún Center, located in the heart of Cancún’s hotel zone, would host specialist conferences for groups of university students.
Criticism
Several voices within the state’s tourism-business sector have accused an enormous slowness in organizing the Tianguis Turístico.
Máximo García, director of the municipal Tourism Office in Cancún, claimed that with less than a year to go until the event, “there has been no concrete progress from the government in terms of organization and logistics.”
A large part of the burden is being placed on private companies, despite the responsibility lying with the state government and the Mexico Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM), he added.
The businessman Francisco Córdova, former leader of the Caribbean Business Coordinating Council (CCE of the Caribbean), believes that the Tianguis is suffering the same fate as the Mayan prophecy theme, that is, a unique opportunity slipping out of the organizers’ hands due to a tremendous slowness in the event’s organization
