Cvent, the cloud-based provider of event management, venue selection and web survey solutions, has announced that its one-year-old partnership with Mexico Meetings Network (MMN) has successfully helped to increase the flow of group meetings and events business to destinations in Mexico. Under the partnership, Cvent and MMN are working together to provide Convention & Visitor Bureaus (CVBs) and venues in Mexico with integrated online marketing packages that showcase Mexico cities and properties to highly-qualified meeting and event planners.
Photo credit: Leon Oficina de Convenciones y Visitantes A.C.
The integrated campaigns encompass a variety of channels, including the Cvent Destination Guide, the first and only destination-specific and free online travel guide designed exclusively for meeting planners; the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN), the world’s largest free online marketplace that connects event planners with venues, which generated $4 billion in business for hotels in 2011; and MexicoMeetingsNetwork.com, the leading English language platform for content and up-to-date news on Mexico’s meetings industry.
“The Mexico meetings and events industry accounts for $18.1 billion in spending each year, and yet there is still a wealth of meeting and convention venues that remain largely untapped,” said Chuck Ghoorah, Cvent’s co-founder and executive vice president of sales and marketing. “With this partnership, we’re coupling MMN’s extensive knowledge of the Mexico meetings market with Cvent’s vast audience of meeting planner users to put Mexico on the map as a premier destination for meetings and events.”
Cvent has already seen an increase in the adoption of the CSN as a result of this partnership, evidenced by a 40 percent growth in the number of Mexican venues that have profiles on the marketplace. This can be largely attributed to MMN’s efforts to educate the market on Cvent and the importance of using electronic request for proposal (RFP) tools. Additionally, although Mexico’s tourism industry has faced challenges in 2011—with several Mexican news sources reporting that international arrivals to some destinations are down by 10 percent or more—Cvent has seen a 24.65 percent year-over-year increase in the number of unique RFPs sent to Mexico through the Cvent Supplier Network.
“To see a growth in the volume of request for proposals coming to our country represents a vote of confidence for Mexico by international meeting planners,” said Oscar Garcia, general manager of the Leon, Mexico CVB and National President of Mexico’s Destination Marketing Association. The Leon CVB was the first Mexican destination to leverage a marketing package through the Cvent and MMN partnership.
“Mexico offers outstanding value and variety for international meeting planners,” added Margot Lee Shetterly, Mexico Meeting Network’s co-founder and president. “MMN and Cvent have a long-term commitment to grow this market, and through this partnership, Mexican destinations are able to offer international planners a world-class quality of communications and RFP response.”
