In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Seyed Rezvani, General Director of Mundo Imperial Entertainment and Hospitality.
What does Mundo Imperial Acapulco consist of in terms of structure and development?
Mundo Imperial consists of three own hotels; Palacio Mundo Imperial, Princess Mundo Imperial and Pierre Mundo Imperial, which have more than 2,054 rooms, a convention center with more than 75,000 square meters of exhibition floor and convention halls. They have two entertainment centers, one is the Imperial World Forum, with a capacity of 4,000 people for concerts, event openings, and sporting events such as boxing or wrestling. And a stadium for 10,500 people, which is the headquarters of the Mexican Tennis Open, which has been held here for many years.
Additionally, we have real estate, residential projects, and a hospital project coming within the next 24 months in Acapulco. We have a 2-kilometer zip line over the sea, and a hotel that we operate in Yucatán, in the city of Mérida. Today we are mostly based in Acapulco. We host very important events, of all the large conferences that are held, we host at least four of them annually; events such as oil workers, miners, Tianguis Turístico, banking convention, in short, all of this is celebrated here in Acapulco.
How were they affected by the hurricane?
It affected us in a very important way. We had the hotels full of convention and conference attendees on the night of its opening, and fortunately we were able to react in time and no one was affected. The first goal was to bring all the people home safe and healthy. This process lasted two or three days and from there we began to focus on how to rebuild and reopen. It was very important for us to attend to the immediate segments such as congresses and conventions, try to reschedule everything that was for November, December and January, and safeguard what was already scheduled. Fortunately we recovered 90% of them.
The second task was how to maintain sporting or significant events, such as the Mexican Tennis Open. We have been able to react correctly to this, and we are now in the process of completely renovating all three properties. This is a great opportunity to improve the facilities and infrastructure, make it safer due to climate change, and use much more robust materials. The climate has changed, and we have to accept it and prepare.
From the point of view of the origin of the tourists who visit you, what would be the national and international percentage?
We have 90% national and 10% international. International arrives to us in the months of November, December, January, February and March. The rest do arrive internationally but very limited, mostly from the United States and Canada. We have had very little tourism from Spain and Latin America. Colombia, for example, is a good headquarters for us, Panama can also be very good.
Mundo Imperial has positioned itself but it is a young company, it has only been operating for 15 years, right?
Yes. We have done a very strong job and we are very pleased and happy to have created a brand that is already known and respected in Mexico for its resilience, for its ability to react and rebuild. This would not be possible without our facilities, hotels, and international events that help us enrich ourselves. We had the Mexican Open tennis event, it was a huge challenge. The place was trashed, but we made it through and it's a much better facility than before. It was important because it was televised to more than 158 countries live. Showing that Acapulco is standing, showing that strength was important. Just two weeks later we held a P series padel tournament, and practically the top 20 women and men in padel came and we are going to repeat that tournament at the end of the year, from December 24 to 2. So yes, we are very happy, these events give credibility, create hope and motivate people to come visit us.
From an infrastructure point of view, do you plan to create other hotels in other destinations or right here?
We are very focused on this because it is a significant amount of investment that is at stake, and then we must position ourselves. Because one thing is to invest, and another is to create the trust so that the client returns. What we have done after the incident is to create safe areas within the properties to give the client peace of mind by having certified places, and having better communication, better water and electricity. And all that infrastructure must be prepared to be able to be without communication for three or four days.