“This year, we intend to position San Miguel de Allende as world-class Conventions Tourism destination; and increase the number of visitors from Sundays to Thursdays”, declared Guillermo González Engelbrecht, head of the Tourism Council. He explained that during the administration of Ricardo Villarreal García, a specialized “Conventions Attention Department” was created, in order to promote conventions and incentive trips”, with the aim of attracting a new type of tourism to San Miguel.
“Unlike the tourism of weddings (a category that has been strongly promoted by the municipality), that took 5 years to position”, said González Engelbrecht; “we are surprised how fast convention travel is positioning, much faster than we expected”.
He also mentioned that they already have dates for international meetings with an agenda until November this year.
As an example, San Miguel de Allende won as venue for the Volkswagen Mexico 2018 Congress; competing against Argentina and Brazil. In 2017, the meeting was held in Peru, and Brazil in 2016. For the first time it will be held in a Mexican destination.
Guillermo González Engelbrecht
According to data of the Tourist Council, the number of visitors during December 2017 had an increase of 15% compared to the previous year; with a total of 463,286 tourists staying at local hotels, which translates into an economic impact of 6.9 billion pesos with an increase of 18%, compared to the previous year.
“According to the data of the Tourism Observatory of the State of Guanajuato (OTEG)”, said Gonzalez Engelbrecht, “San Miguel de Allende had an important percentage growth of 18 points compared to 2016, translated into 2,600,000 visitors in a one-year period”.
Source: http://guanajuatoymas.com.mx/