Los Cabos to grow MICE market with new hotels, reopened convention center

With 31 per cent of the MICE market in Mexico, Los Cabos is looking to increase that number over the next few years with a reopened convention centre and a number of big-name hotels coming to the destination.

Representatives from the Los Cabos Tourism Board stopped in Toronto last night to showcase the destination’s meetings & incentives offerings, which have grown in recent years alongside Los Cabos’ leisure market.

Moctezuma Loza, groups & conventions manager for the Los Cabos Tourism Board, told PAX that “Los Cabos has long been known as a leisure destination but in the last few years, we’ve been looking for the meetings sector as one of the most important markets for us.

“The relationships we’ve been building with the meeting planners has been a great tool for all of our suppliers – the hoteliers, DMCs, restaurants and venues – and it’s helping us a lot.”

Convention Center reopens

After closing for a few years following the devastation of Hurricane Odile in 2014, the Los Cabos International Convention Center officially reopened earlier this spring.

With more than 72,000 square feet of functional meeting space for large-scale events, the center can accommodate a capacity of 8,000 people. Shortly after it originally opened, the center was also the site of the 2012 G20 Summit, marking the first time the event was held in a Latin American country, Loza said.

Other unique meeting venues in Los Cabos include the San Carlos Canyon, where up to 3,000 attendees can be hosted in an open-air setting; and the Sunset MonaLisa restaurant, providing space for up to 600 guests along the Bay of Cabo San Lucas.

READ MORE: Los Cabos convention centre now open

Talia Guerrero, group sales manager, ME Cabo

Hotel building boom

With more than 3 million annual visitors to Los Cabos, the destination continues to add properties to accommodate the growing number of guests. With 73 properties currently open in the destination, that number will increase by 17 over the next three years with a number of top brands set to open hotels, Loza said.

Among the new properties coming to Los Cabos in the near future are hotels by Hard Rock (with 600 rooms, this will be the largest of the new properties), RIU, Four Seasons, Nobu, Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and Caesars.

According to Loza, the new properties will bring a combined 5,000 new rooms to Los Cabos by 2021.

Good to know

• There are three main districts in Los Cabos, each with a distinct atmosphere: Cabo San Lucas, a high-energy party spot with plenty of nightlife; the Tourist Corridor, where the majority of hotels and golf courses are located; and San Jose del Cabo, offering guests a traditional Mexican experience.
• There’s eight Canadian gateways to Los Cabos, including Vancouver, Kelowna, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Montreal and Toronto.
• The Los Cabos Tourism Board offers a Travel Agent Academy, where travel professionals can grow their Los Cabos knowledge and selling skills. Click here for details.