The Riviera Nayarit and its strategic partner, Puerto Vallarta, sponsored marketing activities in Asunción, Paraguay and Montevideo, Uruguay, in alliance with Copa Airlines, to continue boosting these, which have responded very well as cities of origin for the direct flights from Panama to the region.
The activities focused on training events for travel agents and meetings with executives from the top wholesale agencies in the aforementioned cities. The events began on Monday, September 30 in Asunción with a dinner/seminar for more than 65 wholesale travel agents.
Representatives from the Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Trust (Fidetur) together with executives from Copa showcased the tourist attractions from both destinations and the best way to fly to this idyllic region.
The events continued on Tuesday, October 1 in Montevideo during a dinner with six of the most important tour operators in this city and the Copa Airlines executives. Among the attendees were Facundo Casella, director of Liberty Travel; Julio Pérez, director of Plus Travel; Roque Golino, international manager of Hiper Viajes; Leticia Lucchese, product manager for Abtour; Gonzalo Rodríguez, international sales manager for Planet Travel; Karina Segal, service department manager for Seven’s Travel; and Christian Rodríguez, general manager for Copa Airlines in Uruguay.
The team hosted a successful lunch in Montevideo as part of the training program for over 65 travel agents on Wednesday, October 2. The next day they held a seminar for 16 inside sales agents and travel agents from wholesaler Abtour Uruguay and visited the country’s RCI call center (one of the largest on a global scale), where the team trained nearly 300 reservations agents. RCI is considered the leader in vacation exchanges, with 3.7 million members around the world and nearly 4,500 affiliated developments including several properties in the Riviera Nayarit.
The events were deemed a success with 100% of the invited agents in attendance, according to Lucero Guerrero, representative for the Riviera Nayarit CVB. The sales manager added there is a notable and growing interest in visiting this region of the Mexican Pacific, with special emphasis on travelers from Paraguay and Uruguay as well as Argentina, which still sends travelers to the region despite the country’s current economic crisis.
“It’s important to support and maintain a presence in Paraguay as a market,” said Guerrero. “According to data from Copa Airlines we know that it’s one of the markets that has reacted the best to PTY-PVR/Riviera Nayarit. Since the start of the operation it has been positioned among the top three feeders for the flight.”
MORE INFO:
Since December 2018, Copa Airlines reaches more than 80 destinations in 32 countries, connecting North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean with Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit. Passengers travel on a direct flight from Panama City to this paradise.
The Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the Bahía de Banderas Hotel and Motel Association (AHMBB) continue to work together to advance the region, strengthening its promotion and helping position Mexico’s Pacific Treasure on the world map with the support of the Government of the State of Nayarit via the Tourism Promotion Trust (Fiprotur).