MITM Latin America, Meetings and Incentive Trade Market, the first meeting and incentive trade show organized in Latin America…
MITM Latin America, Meetings and Incentive Trade Market, the first meeting and incentive trade show organized in Latin America held its fifth edition in Havana and Varadero, Cuba, from October 17th to the 30th.
Near 100 meetings and incentive hosted buyers attended MITM. They were from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK. A total of 19 countries.
GSAR Marketing, 20 years in business, is the company promoting and producing the three MITM events: MITM Euromed, MITM Latin America and MITM North America.
Near 100 MITM buyers were carefuly selected from a total of 612 registration requests, which it makes a 12% of hosted buyers approvals.
GSAR Marketing is aware that it is difficult to get legitimate meetings and incentive buyers to attend a trade show, any-one.
Most MICE trade shows accept buyers –and sellers passing as buyers- requests to be hosted by the hundreds if not by the thousands. To accept as hosted buyers the mass of request is fine for these MICE shows that sell square feet of exhibition space also by the thousands.
However, G.S.A.R. Marketing is happy and satisfied with obtaining about one hundred really good buyers and matches them with the same number of exhibitors, selling to these not square feet but individual pre-requested meetings -up to 24- with those carefully selected buyers.
This year’s MITM Latin America edition in Cuba surprised everybody by the great interest of USA MICE buyers to come to Varadero to attend the event. It is obvious that there is an expectation for Cuba as a meetings and incentive venue for the early future, once travel restrictions are lifted which is foreseen to be soon. Cuba is a beautiful very big island –Cuba is as large as the Florida Peninsula- offering a variety of scenery and a good number of large five-stars hotels and good meeting facilities –in Havana- at only 90 miles from the USA, with a welcoming, ready to serve people, making of Cuba an exciting new venue for American planners.
The interest of the USA hosted buyers to come to Cuba contrasted with the lack of interest of the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) of the US Department of the Treasury for USA buyers to travel to Cuba.
Although, the USA MITM delegates clearly did qualify for a General License to travel to Cuba since delegates from the USA complied with OFAC rules that specify that they were “attending a professional meetings or conferences in Cuba organized by an international professional organization, institution, or association that regularly sponsors meetings or conferences in other countries…provided that: (i) The international professional organization, institution, or association is not headquartered in the United States unless that organization, institution, or association has been specifically licensed to sponsor the meeting in Cuba; (ii) The purpose of the meeting or conference is not the promotion of tourism in Cuba or other commercial activities involving Cuba that are inconsistent with this part…” (31 CFR # 515.564 (a) (2).).
To comply with above, G.S.A.R. Marketing did not allow meetings between Cuban suppliers and USA buyers.
On July 2004, GSAR Marketing informed the OFAC of above and the OFAC replied on August 20th by a letter received by GSAR Marketing in Madrid, Spain, just four days before the commencement of MITM, OFAC letter said that GSAR Marketing “have not provided information that demonstrates the professional (USA) attendees qualify under a general license provision for attendance at this trade fair”.
Should any of the USA buyers had any difficulty with the OFAC in the future, GSAR Marketing will assist them with the legal support of The Center of Constitutional Rights in Washington DC.
In Varadero, MITM Buyers completed a total of 1,672 meetings with Latin America exhibitors at a avarage of 22 meetings –of a maximum of 24 possible- per exhibitor.
There were exhibitors from 12 countries –hotels, CVBs, DMCs, airlines, etc.-from Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay as well as hotel chains with properties all over Latin America.
Next MITM events are MITM North America in Las Vegas next December and MITM Euromed in Prague, the Czech Republic next May. MITM Latin America will be held in Mexico in October of 2005.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
