Within the framework of this renowned international event, which took place at the Panama Convention Center, Travel2latam had the opportunity to talk with Ana María Moreira, Assistant Manager of the Guayaquil Convention Bureau, and Evelyn Palacios, Communications Director of the Guayaquil Tourism Company .
What has been the experience in this edition of FIEXPO?
It is quite positive that Guayaquil as a destination participates in this type of fair, since it has been growing and continues to develop constantly. As a tourism company and also together with the Convention Bureau, we constantly work to find international destinations that can hold their events, conferences and meetings in our city, and for this reason we always try to offer the best experience to all tourists. I think that this year at FIEXPO we have had a very good reception and we have been constantly talking. Ana María, as Deputy Manager of the Convention Bureau, has not stopped for a minute, because many are interested in our destination.
I think that something that characterizes Guayaquil is the strategic position that it has in the geographical part; It is close to many areas of Ecuador, so that makes us a unique destination. Besides, we are close to the Galapagos Islands and other cities on the mainland, so I think that makes it a very attractive destination. Those who visit for a conference always want to have one or two days to get to know a little more, so they not only know Guayaquil and are at their conference, but also have the opportunity to get to know other parts of Ecuador, which is a great advantage. to be a small country. Guayaquil also has a great tourist and gastronomic offer, it is a city that is characterized by enhancing its culture and taking pride in its roots,
What has been the evolution that they have had before and after the pandemic?
Now we are still recovering the pre-pandemic figures, it really is a super big challenge because we want to attract the largest number of events, but this stop made many destinations reinvent themselves as well, and it is precisely what we are trying to focus on now. That is to say, try to reinvent that way in which we show Guayaquil and recover those figures. Let's remember that in 2019 Guayaquil had a super important evolution in the ICCA ranking, which determines how cities are evolving in terms of the number of meetings they host. We have not yet been able to reach that number but we are working very hard to be able to reach it again and even exceed it.
What is the connectivity that the destination has?
Guayaquil has the advantage of having around 171 direct international flights. As for the internal connection, it is only 1 hour 45 minutes from the Galapagos Islands, and only two hours by land from different beaches on the Ecuadorian coast. We are more or less three hours from the Sierra and approximately 5 hours from the Amazon.
Which markets are especially important to you?
For us, the United States continues to be the main market, however, the post-pandemic European market has become very active. I believe that this also happens because the interests of travelers have changed considerably; now they are looking for more natural spaces and obviously our country, being geographically located on the equator and being megadiverse, allows us to discover new places that have practically not been exploited. We are seeing a large influx of bird watchers, while others are interested in visiting the tropical dry forests, and others are also very interested in seeing how the mangroves evolve. So I believe that although the United States continues to be a very important market, Through the new connectivity that has been opened at the regional level, many travelers from the region of Colombia and Peru are arriving due to proximity, and also due to price issues; travelers from Argentina and Central America who want to visit the place.
What are the five places that nobody could stop visiting in Guayaquil?
One of the most important is the Cocoa Museum, which is located on Panama street, which is another tourist place that people cannot miss. Panama street is one of the places where cacao was extracted in the past, and in this museum you can enter and learn about the entire history of cacao, and the chocolate factory is located right there, so the visitor can see the entire process of making cocoa until it is converted into a chocolate bar and thousands of other products. We also have the Malecón 2000, which is 2.5 kilometers, where you have a majestic river by your side. Then there is Parque Seminario, which is characterized by having iguanas that live there and are totally used to humans, that is their habitat, and we always try to teach people that they must be respected,
And as fifth place, I would say Puerto Santa Ana, which is something totally different from the traditional part of Guayaquil, because in this part you have a small Malecón and you also have the river on one side and believe me, watching the sunset there is wonderful. In addition, it has a great gastronomic offer, you have quite large hotels and buildings. And I am going to give a plus, which is the Barrio Las Peñas. It is the first neighborhood of Guayaquil, located on Cerro Santa Ana, despite the fact that this site caught fire, it tried to always maintain that same structure. The street is cobbled, the structure of the houses is super old and many of them are even considered as cultural heritage, because they were the homes of former presidents and very representative cultural figures of our city and the independence of Guayaquil.