Canacine Quintana Roo Strengthens Film-Tourism Synergy at Industry Event

Riviera Cancun, Quintana Roo — The Quintana Roo chapter of the National Chamber of the Film Industry (CANACINE) brought together top executives from the tourism and audiovisual sectors at the Breathless Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa, demonstrating how film production drives cross-industry business, generating direct revenue for hotels, restaurants, logistics, and suppliers through tax incentives and global positioning.

The partnership between the resort and CANACINE Quintana Roo serves as a real-world example of how high-end hospitality and the film industry can profitably complement each other. By hosting the event, the hotel showed how a tourist destination can integrate organically into the film business ecosystem.

Infrastructure and connectivity by the numbers

Quintana Roo offers a structured ecosystem to host national and international productions of any scale, whether for cinema or streaming:

• Accommodation: Over 138,000 hotel rooms available for cast and crew during extended shoots.
• Air connectivity: Strategic air links with an average of 24 operations per hour.
• Land and sea connectivity: Operational capacity across seven official ports and transport links via more than 1,500 kilometers of railway connecting five southeastern states.

At the macroeconomic level, data presented at the event confirmed that Mexico’s audiovisual industry contributes more than 20 billion pesos to national GDP and supports over 184,000 direct jobs. Under this ecosystem, each dollar invested is redistributed three to five times within the local economy through complementary services such as hospitality, transportation, and dining.

CANACINE Quintana Roo President and producer Sofia Ibanez explained how producing film and audiovisual content in the destination functions as a long-term organic marketing campaign, turning global viewers into future guests.

Attendees included Maria Elisa Mercader, Quintana Roo Film Commissioner; Estefania Hernandez, Secretary of Economy of Playa del Carmen; Liz Melo, vice president of the Cancun, Puerto Morelos, and Isla Mujeres Hotel Association; and Offner Arjona, president of the Small Hotels of Playa del Carmen, underscoring the hotel sector’s interest in linking efforts between industries.

A panel moderated by Tabata Vilar Villa, national director of CANACINE, titled “Screen Tourism and Intellectual Property,” featured Carlos Gomez, director general of EGEDA Mexico; Mauricio Duran, national president of CANACINE; and local deputy Hugo Alday. They provided legal perspectives, emphasized the importance of growth through collaboration, and highlighted the vitality of film commissions.

The event was hosted by Jonathan Hellwig Guerra, president of CANACINE Yucatan, and enriched by insights from actress Esmeralda Soto and filmmaker Pierre Saint Martin, director of No nos moveran. Ricardo Guzman, president of CANACINE Tabasco, also attended.