Tianguis Turistico 2018 Mazatlan

 

By: Tracey Manailescu, Co-founder and Vice President of The Wedding Planners Institute of Canada (WPIC Inc.)

Danielle and I have just returned from an incredible week in Mazatlan, Mexico where we were guests of Tianguis Turistico.  We were wined, dined, entertained, and interviewed.  We also had the opportunity to meet some fantastic contacts, which we will definitely be working with in the future, as well as catching up with some familiar faces.  We have tons of memories, and just as many photos 🙂

We had scheduled appointments with various companies at the Mazatlan International Center. It was a bit overwhelming at first, as there were so many suppliers and booths (as you can see below). However, once we got the hang of it, all was seamless. They also had many types of performances, as well as food, coffee and tequila tastings throughout. Whoo hoo!

Our favourite meeting had to be with our friend and business contact, Corporate Director of Sales, Canada for Palace Resorts Juan Carlos Calderon.

A HUGE thank you consisting of sincere gratitude and appreciation goes out to Araceli Lopez Dacosta, the Romance Director for The Mexico Tourism Board for putting together such a stellar program for our wonderful group of 14 wedding planners/designers who were from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Miami, California, Paraguay, and Canada.

“Tianguis Turístico México is the most important event in the tourism sector of our country, where entrepreneurs, hoteliers, travel agents, receptive operators, tour operators, meeting planners, specialized media of the tourism industry of more than 80 countries in the world, are the most representative for the commercialization of the tourist offer of Mexico.  This event provides the opportunity to show the entire world, all the tourist destinations that Mexico has to offer, represented in segments such as sun and beach, culture, adventure, nature, historical routes, colonial heritage, archaeological sites and world heritage sites that have led Mexico to be the country with the highest number of awards in Latin America and the sixth in the world.”

One of the biggest highlights of the event was that we were invited to the “Captains of the Industry” dinner with the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, where we dined under the stars along the Malecon along the Paseo de Olas Altas (so what if it was with another 1200 people, it was still by invitation only)  we were table 73 & 74 which put us right in the middle of it all.

The decor, parade, music, and fireworks were absolutely incredible! What a way to start the event. Grateful doesn’t even begin to cover our feelings.

Our particular program was specifically for wedding professionals.  As such, we were taken to some really great venues for lunches, dinners and site visits as well as an excursion.

We were given the opportunity to experience Las Labradas (which is an archaeological site) and finished it off with lunch and a show in El Quelite.

*All photos from this excursion were taken by wedding photographer, Jeronimo Moreno Photography 

Thank you to everyone involved to make Tanguis Turistico such a memorable event!