• The prize was awarded by World Travel Awards, which are worldwide considered as the tourism Oscars

San José, Costa Rica. On the brink of its first anniversary and thanks to the joint efforts during the last months, the Costa Rica Convention Center (CRCC) continues to receive awards and certifications.

After receiving the EDGE international certification in May this year, it has now been chosen by tourism professionals and consumers around the world as the Leading Compound for Conferences and Meetings in Mexico and Central America 2019, on the frame of the World Travel Awards.

Since this category was created, this is the first time that the award is granted outside of Mexico, which helps positioning the Costa Rican compound as one of the most important in the region.

This ceremony took place last week in La Paz, Bolivia and since 1993 has served to acknowledge, reward, and celebrate the excellency in all the tourism industry sectors. The main personalities, decision makers and influencers in the travel and tourism industry in Latin America attend this ceremony.

The CCCR is currently managed by Grupo Heroica, who have been developing a strategic, commercial, and operational work since 2018.

““Receiving this recognition strengthens us to keep building the vision that we set from the beginning where we aim for Costa Rica to have a compound for world quality events and to be a reference in Latin America for three strategic concepts: service excellency, operational effectiveness, and sustainability. For us at Grupo Heroica is an honor to share our experience so that the country walks in that direction,” added Álvaro Rojas, General Manager of the Costa Rica Convention Center.

The winners of this regional ceremony advance to the big final to be held on November 28th at Oman. This prestigious award ceremony is an annual event that has been celebrated for over 25 years with the goal of acknowledging the best zones and companies around the world dedicated to travelling and tourism. This ceremony is divided by regions and thanks to its great projection the Central America & Mexico category has become one of the favorites in the industry.

Costa Rica positions itself in the business meeting tourism by stablishing channels of communication and opportunities of business development with countries around the world, with great factors that benefit the country by attracting international congresses and conventions.

“On behalf on the ICT, we feel honored to have been awarded at the World Travel Awards as the best conventions center in the Mexico and Central America 2019 category. The Costa Rica Convention Center is a building that meets all the necessary conditions to offer an optimal service in different sectors, from a meeting, to a special event, to a congress, and even to a plenary session of more than 4000 people at the same time.

This award confirms our commitment to sustainability as a core idea of our tourism model, an idea that has even positively pervaded from the conception of the Costa Rica Convention Center to the events developed on this compound as part of the strengthening of the marketing strategy and the positioning of the country in the tourism niche related to the organization of events, congresses, and incentives,” mentioned Gustavo Alvarado, Director of Tourism Management at the ICT.

The Costa Rica Convention Center has the goal of satisfying the service demand of the business meeting segment both nationally and internationally, with the aim of becoming a leading destination in the region, always supporting the country strategy that the ICT has stablished for this industry.

________

About the Costa Rica Convention Center

The conventions center is a member of the Conventions Bureau, which allows it to develop a key work in investigation and analysis to strengthen the nation’s image as a possible destination for international and national congresses.

Facts:

The Costa Rica Convention Center is located on Barreal, Heredia and was opened on April 5th with a $35 million investment.

The Costa Rica Convention Center is a 15,600 m2 compound able to hold a maximum of 5,600 people in all of its halls and rooms.

The Costa Rica Convention Center is property of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, managed by the private company Grupo Heroica Volio y Trejos.

The Costa Rica Convention Center offers versatile spaces for 10 people and up to 4,000 people in plenum and 1,000 parking spaces. The 10-hectare compound has three halls with different dimensions that can be divided into several areas, six meeting rooms, a press room, a VIP room, kitchen area, among other spaces.

The 24.7-acre compound has 3 rooms with different dimensions which can be divided into several areas, six meeting rooms, a press room, one VIP room, kitchen area, among others.

Photos of our events and facilities.

Guanacaste, June 24 – 27. Costa Rica is the venue of the Latin America Meeting & Incentive Travel Exchange (LAMITE), an event to expand the contact and opportunity network in the Latin American travel market. LAMITE connects high-volume meeting planners and hosted buyers based in Latin America with world leader providers to cultivate relations and maximize profits. This event will take place at Planet Hollywood Hotel, in Guanacaste.

Guanacaste is internationally known as a tropical paradise, being one of the most popular provinces in Costa Rica. Visitors are attracted to the long summer days, the active culture, and the incomparable wildlife. It is located on the Northeast part of the country and has diverse and exotic characteristics. The province offers infinite options for recreation: surf, quad bike tours, snorkeling, zip lining, horseback tours, hiking, among others, and that is why both locals and international visitors travel to Guanacaste.

LAMITE is the only event in Latin America that allows a face-to-face gathering between prequalified meeting planners of great volume in Latin America and hosted buyers who make worldwide reservations for businesses. One of the values of the event is to provide the vendors private time to spend with the buyers who participate during two days in the negotiation and guarantee a minimum of 20 preprogramed appointments. Through a rigorous process of selection, this fair recruits only the most qualified business meetings planers and hosted buyers of the region. The buyers, located in Latin America, come from key buying sectors, like direct host companies, event management companies, business meetings and travel agencies (which are important buyers of MICE in Latin America). To the date, there are 80 participants between hosted buyers and suppliers.

For Juan Carlos Borbón, Marketing Director of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism, “this action is part of the public-private effort that is made specifically for the event and business meeting market. Our country has been chosen to host the LAMITE event that gathers approximately 80 international buyers from Canada, United States, Mexico and Latin America. We feel very proud and are convinced that the event is successful, especially for that national and international businessmen who join us.”

Borbón concluded that this event does not only enhance Guanacaste has a destination but also other areas of the country that offer an ideal quality product for the business meeting and incentive market.

Costa Rica’s incorporation to LAMITE is part of the marketing and positioning actions for the business meeting industry. Additionally, there are advertising campaigns in specialized media, an ambassadors program for the presentation of congress and international events nominations, among others. Participating on this fair allows getting to know the tendencies in the industry of business meetings, incentives, congresses, conventions and events by gathering relevant information for strategic marketing decision making.

More information at www.latintravelexchange.com

• Latin America FIEXPO in Chile has the presence of 12 countries and over 200 companies of the business tourism segment.

• Costa Rica participates with a dozen specialized companies from June 10 – 12 in Santiago, Chile.

June 12, Santiago, Chile. With the active presence of twelve specialized companies, Costa Rica participates in the Latin America FIEXPO fair in Santiago, Chile, with the goal of ratifying the strategic development and efforts of positioning the country in the business tourism, conventions, congresses and incentives segment.

This fair will take place from June 10 – 12 and is considered as one of the main platforms to promote countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Mexico as recipient territories and able to organize high-level international events. Twelve countries and over 200 buyers or hosted buyers from the area, United States and Europe will participate on this edition.

On this opportunity, the international fair area of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT) built a 592-ft2 stand with large format pictures suspended over meeting and negotiation spaces. The images portray one of the competitive advantages of Costa Rica on this segment: the quality of the venues for the events, mixed with the multiple nature, biodiversity and wellness appeals that can complement the experience of tourists who visit Costa Rica for a congress, convention or business.

The experience of the Costa Rican exhibition space at the Latin America FIEXPO is complemented with the presence of vertical screens that show audiovisuals of business meeting spaces like the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica, as well as the most outstanding tourism feature that our country offers as a destination. In addition, Costa Rican plants and decorations allusive to the typical oxcarts from Sarchí stand out in the decoration.

According to Juan Carlos Borbón, from Marketing at the ICT, participating on this edition of the fair has been beneficial and has brought positive results. “Participating on this fair ratifies the efforts of the public or private sector on the implementation of the positioning strategy of Costa Rica on the business meeting segment; participating on the main international world fairs of this industry contributes to negotiating and engaging in future mid and long-term events,” he explained.

Borbón added that as part of the actions taking place at the Chilean capital and on the context of the fair, a one-on-one meeting was organized with the international buyers interested in the destination with the presence of Adriana María Murillo Marín, Costa Rica’s Ambassador in Chile.

Business meetings tourism moves forward with strong steps

Álvaro Rojas, General Manager of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica, mentioned feeling satisfied of being a part of Latin America FIEXPO to strengthen Costa Rica’s offer to the industry. “The Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica participates for the second time in FIEXPO, one of the most important business meetings industry fairs in Latin America.

This fair allows us to provide a differentiated offer for the directors of those professional associations that want to take their events to Costa Rica. We have had a good fair with great appointments, and we expect a great outcome in the next few years. And far more than an economic income, we also measure intellectual equity, knowledge spill, and contacts who offer professional associations who have congresses and meetings in Latin America,” he concluded.

According to the event organization data, this fair represents Latin America and the Caribbean in the global meeting market, making it an unavoidable date for the countries that want to show their potential on this market. This fair is characterized by having the presence of high-quality hosted buyers, who participate with the hopes of searching for new destinations for their events, with the ease of being invited by the organization.

Additionally, the data indicates that 60% of the participating hosted buyers organize over 10 events a year, 39% represent Latin American and Pan-American associations, 16% Ibero-American and international associations, and 45% agencies and enterprise.

The participation of Costa Rica in 2019 Latin America FIEXPO constitutes one of the marketing actions as part of the positioning in the business meeting industry. Additionally, there are advertising campaigns in specialized media, an ambassadors program for the presentation of congress and international events nominations, among others.

Also, participating in the world’s main specialized fairs, besides from positioning the country, allows getting to know the tendencies in the industry of business meetings, incentives, congresses, conventions and events by gathering relevant information for strategic marketing decision making. For more information on the fair, visit http://www.fiexpolatinoamerica.com

ICT Press Contacts:
Luis Jara, email: [email protected], phone: 8341-4521 / 2299-5762
Alejandra Fernández, email: [email protected], phone: 8387-7025/ 2299-5732

Related Posts

• CCCR fulfills parameters of the EDGE Certification System

On the afternoon of Friday May 17th, the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica (CCCR) received the EDGE certification for facilities post production, which is awarded by Green Building Council Costa Rica (GBCCR) in virtue of its characteristics related to sustainability.

EDGE is an international certification system managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an entity associated by the World Bank. Its purpose is to accelerate the change toward sustainable building in developing countries through a certification system that is simple, accessible, objective and based on free software.

“At the conventions center we feel very pleased to have obtained this certification, and we, as Grupo Heroica, are committed to sustainability and convinced that technological innovation destined to achieve constructions that are more environmentally friendly plays a fundamental role in the compound’s DNA. This venue was built from a sustainable design, with a bioclimatic architecture that aims to protect and achieve a better profit from the resources available. We have interior spaces with natural lighting and sunlight diffusers, reflective roofing, walls and sun shields that mitigate the sun heating and allow the climatization equipment to work more efficiently. Additionally, we have high-technology air conditioned with energy saving systems that work by specific areas, allowing to use it by sections of the building,” commented Álvaro Rojas, General Manager of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica.

“On behalf of the ICT, we feel extremely proud and honored to have played an active part in the process of obtaining the EDGE international certification by the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica, even more because this distinction is granted by the Green Building Council Costa Rica and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the latter being an entity associated to the World Bank,” expressed Gustavo Alvarado, Tourism Manager of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT).

Alvarado added that this award reaffirms our commitment to sustainability as a central pivot of our tourism model, a pivot that has even positively permeated from the conception of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica to the new events that will take place in the compound as part of the strengthening of the marketing strategy and the positioning of the country in the tourism niche related to the organization of events, congresses, and incentives.

Ana Quirós, president of the BGCCR indicated that “currently, there is a tendency of acknowledging the importance of intelligent cities, which go together with the concept of sustainability and must be always present, and in this context, the CCCR has always managed to commit to this country model necessary to boost a sustainable business.”

EDGE certifies buildings and projects, both in the design stage and postconstruction, in six classifications: residential, commercial, hotels, hospitals, offices, and educational.

This certification system concentrates on the evaluation of three performance parameters of the buildings: energy consumption, water consumption, and energy incorporated in the materials. For these, EDGE uses a local data base (on local construction practices, service costs, climate data, among others) and basic data on the building to present a local base line, which will be compared to the real design of the project. In this comparison, if a 20% or more reduction of the three parameters is met, the project is EDGE certifiable.

In the case of the CCCR, Rojas added that other measures incorporated to the energy are the reduction of the glass proportion on the outside façade, sun protection devices, roof insulation, variable frequency units in the air handling units (AHU), variable speed units in the pumps, efficient lights in interiors, exteriors, and occupation sensors.

With the water, the building has low consumption faucets in sinks, efficient urinals, low-flush toilets, and rain water recollection systems.

As part of the World Business Meeting Industry Day, the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica announces new international events

• Grupo Heroica, administrator of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica (CCCR) announced 13 international events during 2019, added to other additional events yet to be confirmed.

San José, Costa Rica, April 3, 2019. On April 4th, Costa Rica will join the celebration for the World Meeting Industry Day. This is an initiative promoted by the organization Meeting Man Business Coalition, which includes over 40 countries.

This day highlights the importance of the meeting industry in the world, which has positioned firmly as a key business model in the development of economies around the world.

The industry creates a great source of income, jobs and investment, which transfers knowledge and highlights innovation and creativity. In Latin America, this activity represents a sum that amounts to $33 billions dollars a year.

The celebration comes at a time when the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica announced the conformation of 13 international events for this 2019:

• Latin American Congress of Buiatry
• V LATINOSAN Conference 2019
• 2019 World Veterinary Association Congress
• XXXIII Costa Rican Seminar of Legal Medicine
• XII Encuentro de la Red Iberoamericana de Instituciones de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forense
• 2019 International Dentistry Congress
• 2019 Cinde Job Fair
• Showtime by Odontopolis
• Mentora – Progrentis – BrainCo Neuroeducation
• Expo Con X
• 2019 Expotur
• Technologies Forum (private corporate event)
• Global Conference of International Baptist Biblical Fellowship

* Plus other international events that are under negotiation at the moment.

Within this industry, there are groups worldwide who are experts in the matter, who play a key role, and among them is the International Association of Convention Centers (AIPC) and the Global Fair Association (UFI), who have expressed their opinion on the growth of the country and the CCCR on the matter of meetings.

“A new Center of Conventions always faces a great challenge because they can only be commercialized once they have been built. Many of the events, especially the international ones, will take place several years later. Under this reality, the fact that the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica already has over 10 international events scheduled for 2019 is a great achievement and a positive sign for the future because they will make themselves known in the world industry,” pointed out Rod Cameron. Executive Manager of the International Association of Convention Centers (AIPC).

In this context, the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica announced its goal of becoming a landmark venue in Latin America because of three specific characteristics: excellent service, operational efficiency, and sustainability. The announcement was endorsed after the CCCR informed of these new events that direct the world’s attention to our country.

“The fact that the CCCR is able to host more than 10 international events on 2019 shows that a successful alliance between the public and private sectors anywhere in the country can create magnificent results in the business meeting industry. In this case, the great country vision combined with the interesting management of the private sector, represented by Grupo Heroica, and the important support of the government through the ICT and the intervention of other entities like the Conventions Bureau or the supply chain generate a solid cluster in the city,” affirmed Ana María Arango, manager for Latin America of the Global Fair Association (UFI).

Among the most relevant aspects that organizers consider for the election of Costa Rica as a business meeting destination is the accessibility to the city, destination connectivity, hotel and event infrastructure, local supplier quality, destination mobility, among others.

“International events are the key work of several institutions, and good results are always a positive outcome for the country; they are a confirmation that we have a great future in this industry. More than the economic income that these events will bring, we must value the legacy, intellectual pouring, knowledge equity, the contacts, among other intangibles that help with Costa Rica’s progress and growth,” indicated Alvaro Rojas, General Manager of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica (CCCR).

In addition to all these conditions, the compound offers its participants a space of three rooms of different sizes that can be divided into different areas, six meeting rooms, press room, one VIP room, kitchen area, among other spaces. The administration of the compound in managed by the private consortium Grupo Heroica – Volio Trejos S.A., which has a extensive experience managing this kind of compounds, as they manage two other Convention Centers.

For more information on the initiative of the celebration of the world business meeting industry day, you may visit http://meetingsmeanbusiness.com/gmid

• The venue met the expectations in sales and a grade of 9 out of 10 from the organizers.

• It is positioned as one of the most sustainable event venues in the region by accomplishing a 100% waste separation in its activities.

San José, Costa Rica. With only 6 months since its opening, the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica (CCCR) achieved a 109% of the agreed sales with the ICT for 2018 thanks to the strengthening of both the operations team and the human talent, who cooperated for a successful development of national and international events.

During 2018, the venue was home for the National Congress of Cardiology, the National Congress of Cooling Professionals, Latin American Congress for Sustainability and Innovation, and the XX Tourism National Congress, to name a few. It also hosted corporative events of big national companies and other private events of fewer people.

This performance came with highly positive annual results from the organizers, which granted a 9,39/10 grade, making it an event venue with high quality and service standards and one of the must sustainable in the area thanks to the 100% waste separation on its activities.

The venue offers its participants a 24,7-acre space with 3 rooms of different dimensions which can be divided into different areas, six meeting rooms, one press room, one VIP room, kitchen area, among others. These characteristics give the organizers the opportunity to see first-hand an increase in attendance to events open to the public, the speed in terms of assembling, the personalized service and the comfort for the attendees.

For this reason, the CCCR was chosen in 2019 to hold six international congresses, like the Latin American Congress for Water Sanitation and the World Veterinary Association Congress, which will take place from the 27 – 30 of April. This is a unique opportunity for veterinarians of all specialties around the world to gather and explore the challenges that animals’ health and wellbeing face. The events estimated the attendance of 1500 people, who will hear 62 lecturers from all over the world.

“We are really excited about 2019 because the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica is moving forward steadily with the goal of becoming a Latin American reference venue for three specific characteristics: our excellent service, the operational efficiency, and sustainability. All the above keeping in mind always supporting the country strategy that the ICT has stablished for this segment, managing to satisfy the service demand of the business meeting industry both internationally, as a main focus, and nationally,” indicated Álvaro Rojas, General Manager of the CCCR.

“As long as we are able to make the CCCR a space that facilitates all the necessary inputs for providers and producers to work swiftly, this will have a direct impact on the quality of the events that we will host,” added Rojas. “That is why, in 2019, we will also continue with our plan to specialize sector providers, as we have the intention of providing the necessary tools so that the quality of the events is better each time.

“This is part of our specialization process, which is a pivot in our strategy and added value; we know that, more than an idea or an isolated action, our value lies in building experiences that have a specialized venue as its core, where all our focus and resources are directed to events without mixing other types of businesses,” concluded Rojas.

About the name of the Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica®

The correct name of the compound is Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica ® (CCCR) and its venue is 60 277.9 ft2. Its versatility allows it to adapt spaces that hold from 10 people up to 4 000 in plenum, with the opportunity to offer 1 000 parking spaces.