5/31/2023 0 Comments Secrets resorts cancun mexico![]() Next morning, following a veritable cornucopia-style breakfast buffet, Maru arranged for her colleague Ana Rueda to take me around the property and to highlight, in particular, the facilities available for meetings and incentives groups. There I was captivated by Gregory Colbert’s short movie “Ashes and Snow” which is the default presentation on the in-room entertainment system at all AM resort properties. Knowing I was coming off a long flight she arranged for a speedy dispatch through check-in formalities and soon I was luxuriating in the beautifully pleasing spaces of my room on the 22nd floor. My sense of homecoming was greatly enhanced by the warm smiles and heartfelt greetings of Maru Suarez, property based Director of Sales for Secrets The Vine. Soon your gaze is drawn outwards to the water. The check-in area and the concierge desks are set to the side, not intruding on your sense of arrival. The stunning lobby with its huge fireplace and clusters of intimate seating welcomes you “home” to a strangely familiar place, at once excitingly exotic and reassuringly known. Designed by Mahattan based Rockwell Group, who also did The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, W Paris and the spanking new JetBlue terminal at Kennedy airport, Secrets is confidently contemporary with lots of glass, stone and wood. It’s the most recent new hotel opening in Cancun and the fifth Secrets for AM Resorts. I was privileged to enjoy a short pre-event stay at Secrets The Vine Resort, under the management of AMResorts, sister company of Amstar, Ovation’s strategic partner in Mexico and the Carribean. Inside however, is another story with the more recent developments decidedly “design-led” much like Red Rock Resort and the entire City Center development are in Vegas. In fairness, you couldn’t claim it was mold breaking as urban planning or pretty in terms of aesthetics. The resorts butt up against each other along a super-narrow, ribbon-like lagoon. With some exceptions, the hotels are “fully inclusive resorts” where your room rate includes all food and beverage, sometimes even Pringles. The hotel zone in Cancun is a bit like the strip in Las Vegas except there’s a continuous sandy beach, an aquamarine coloured ocean, no casinos and no Celine Dion or Donny and Marie show. Finally, factor into the mix the financial incentives offered by the Mexican government to corporations and associations who stage their meetings in the country – full VAT rebate of between 11% and 18% – and you can see why it’s a great place for meetings. Air lift into Cancun International is excellent from key source markets in North America and Europe and transfer distances from airport to hotel are short and efficient. The meetings and events infrastructure in the wider Riviera Maya has enjoyed astonishing growth and now comprises some 75,000 hotel rooms, over 50% of which have been created within that 10 year time frame. So, technically speaking, you could swim up to the pool bar, order a Mojito and make small talk with your bar tender about ancient Mayan culture. Firstly it’s a sun, sand and sea destination, surrounded on all sides by history, heritage and culture. ![]() For this reason I’ve been here many times as every industry association to which I belong has held a Board Meeting and/or an Annual Conference here in the past 10 years. Mexico in general and Cancun in particular have always enjoyed a strong relationship with the meetings industry at large. This week I’m back in Mexico, or, at least, I’m back in Cancun as some people might protest that this place is as typically Mexican as Disneyland Paris is French. It’s their relentless humanity, their passionate joie de vivre, their cultivation of chaos. The same applies to Mexicans and probably for the same reasons. In a previous post I stated that I’d never met a Neapolitan that I didn’t like. By Padraic Gilligan, Vice President, Ovation Global DMC
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