Miguel Quintana Pali Honored with MexBest Tourism Award

Guadalajara, Jalisco — The MexBest 2025 awards, an event recognizing the best in gastronomy, hospitality, and tourism in Mexico, concluded this Thursday. During the fifth edition of the ceremony, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, architect and businessman Miguel Quintana Pali, founder of Grupo Xcaret, was honored with the Tourism Lifetime Achievement Award.

The recognition was bestowed in consideration of more than 30 years of work in the tourism industry, during which Quintana Pali has transformed the Riviera Maya into an international benchmark through the creation and consolidation of various theme parks.

It is noted that each year, in mid-August, the magazine MexBest brings together major personalities from the industry, including hoteliers, chefs, creatives, entrepreneurs, and editors specializing in travel and lifestyle. The MexBest Awards not only recognize high cuisine and luxury hospitality but also highlight innovative projects, young promises, and spaces that are transforming the way gastronomy, hospitality, and tourism are experienced in Mexico.

In this context, the award to Miguel Quintana Pali holds special significance, as he remains active in promoting ideas of great economic reach for the country, in addition to his trajectory with Grupo Xcaret. One of his most recent proposals is the creation of an interoceanic canal in Mexico as an alternative to the Panama Canal.

Just one week ago, the president of Grupo Xcaret presented a privately funded study, financed by himself, in which he brought together dozens of experts in engineering, environment, roadways, and anthropology to explore the possibility of developing an interoceanic canal in Mexico connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.

According to the preliminary analysis, the "Mexican canal" could mobilize up to 190 ships per day, a figure four times greater than the current flow of the Panama Canal, which is 45 vessels per day.

Who is Miguel Quintana Pali?

Miguel Quintana Pali, self-described as the "barefoot architect," was born in Boston in 1945. He spent his childhood in Santiago, Chile, and his youth in Mexico City and Monterrey.

His business career began in 1972 when he founded the chain of furniture and decor boutiques, Pali, with branches in strategic areas of the center of the country, such as Perisur, Lomas de Chapultepec, and Satélite.

After more than a decade in that line of business, he decided to change course and in 1985 initiated the project that would give rise to Xcaret, a theme park that opened its doors in 1987 in the Riviera Maya. The success of this initiative was the starting point for the creation of new tourist complexes.

Over the last 30 years, and in collaboration with his partners, the Constandse brothers, Quintana Pali drove the opening of five other parks: Xplor, Xplor Fuego, Xoximilco, Xenses, and Xavage, consolidating Grupo Xcaret as a benchmark in the tourism industry in Mexico and the world.

The MexBest 2025 recognition adds to a career marked by innovation and vision, which have placed the Riviera Maya and Mexico in general on the global tourism map.