In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Nitzy Rios, Marketing Coordinator of the Public Tourism Trust for Promotion and Advertising of the Municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
What is the expectation of Puerto Vallarta in its participation in WTM?
Well, first of all, we want to encourage European markets much more to visit us and, without a doubt, reaffirm the flight we have with Manchester to Puerto Vallarta directly with TUI and see opportunities in different markets.
We are in November, what reflection would you give about what happened this year and what is your expectation for next year?
In Puerto Vallarta we are truly closing a magnificent year. Our main markets, Canada, the United States and the national market. But the closure we are having is incredible with high occupancy, more than 70% occupancy. We also have very good tax collection, and expectations for next year are to exceed this year's numbers, with at least 10% additional growth and greater visitors from better markets.
How do you describe the current situation in terms of what the destination offers? How is the situation, for example, with hotel investments?
Right now there are not many openings for Puerto Vallarta due to space issues, but we have the metropolitan area that covers a bit of Riviera Nayarit, which is having many openings of luxury hotels from big brands, and on the other hand, for Jalisco we also have hotels like Four Seasons or Louis Vuitton that are going to be opening in Carellas throughout that part of Costa Alegre; So they are new opportunities for us, for a segment of the high-end market and they are going to impact Puerto Vallarta with better brands.
What can you tell us in terms of information, connectivity news, both in terms of airlines and cruises?
At the moment none, but we are looking to open new routes to European markets.
Do you have meetings planned here, since there are so many airlines present?
Yes, there are meetings planned with some tour operators that we can probably do something important and with TUI to look at the follow-up issue with the Manchester flight.
Well, how is the year and the beginning of 2024 going for you?
Well, it is a strong season for us, it is the high season, so the end of the year looks very good and the beginning of the year too, but mainly for our North American markets and we hope that everything goes excellent, increase in cruises and so on.
And in terms of event participation?
I think we are already decreasing our participation in events, but without a doubt we will be at FITUR, which is an important event.