María Fernanda Ojeda: "The welcome pack is the first conversation with the guest"
María Fernanda Ojeda runs a Destination Management Company (DMC) in Cancún specialized in corporate events, incentives and conferences for international groups arriving at the Mexican Caribbean. We interviewed her at her office about how group merch becomes part of the destination's narrative, what organizers expect, and why local logistics has particularities that a foreign workshop does not always understand. The conversation was edited; the opinions are hers.
The conversation
Corp-Merch.MX: What does a DMC like yours do in the corporate merch ecosystem?
María Fernanda Ojeda: A DMC designs, coordinates and executes the local side of an international event. When a US or European corporate brings three hundred employees to Cancún for a sales convention, we handle transport, dinners, activities, tours, meeting spaces and, very importantly, the local merch: welcome packs in the room, kits for the speakers, gifts for the VIPs, t-shirts for the team activities, souvenirs the group takes home.
Corp-Merch.MX: What does that merch look like?
María Fernanda Ojeda: It has to tell the destination's story. A generic t-shirt with the client's logo is not the same as a t-shirt with regional motifs, with a color that recalls the Caribbean, with packaging that feels local. The welcome pack in the room is the first tangible conversation with the guest; if it is well done, it sets the tone for the whole week.
Local as an advantage
Corp-Merch.MX: Which local elements work best in group merch?
María Fernanda Ojeda: There are four we use a lot. Local craftsmanship — woven jute bags from Yucatán, alebrijes from Oaxaca, black clay pieces from Michoacán — whenever volume allows. Local flavors in gourmet kits: habanero salsa from the Peninsula, Chiapas coffee, Oaxacan chocolate, artisanal mezcal. Local fabric and fashion: Yucatecan guayaberas for groups visiting in the warm season. And sustainable materials: organic cotton t-shirts, bamboo-engraved steel thermoses, recycled-paper notebooks.
The common denominator is that the guest takes a piece of the destination home, not a generic souvenir they could have bought at the airport.
Logistics: what a foreign workshop does not always get
Corp-Merch.MX: What logistics complications does Caribbean event merch have?
María Fernanda Ojeda: Three complications that a workshop in CDMX or Guadalajara does not always size up. The first is timing: the group arrives on a Tuesday at six in the afternoon and the welcome pack has to be in the room by five. If the supplier shows up with the truck at four thirty, it does not get in. The merch has to be at the hotel since the morning.
The second is the climate: the humidity in Cancún ruins cardboard packaging, warps labels and ruins finishes. You have to use sealed plastic packaging, inks that do not run, finishes that resist. The third is customs: when the group is international and the merch crosses with them at the airport or by truck, you have to have the pedimentos and the foreign trade complement in order.
The relationship with the Mexican workshop
Corp-Merch.MX: How do you choose the workshop that supplies you?
María Fernanda Ojeda: I need three things. The first is response speed: in events, decisions get made the day before. If the workshop takes three days to quote me, it does not work for me. The second is quantity flexibility: sometimes I need 50 kits, sometimes 800. I do not want a workshop that only does large runs.
The third is that they know the destination. A workshop that has already handled deliveries in the Cancún hotel zone, in the Riviera Maya, in Cozumel knows how to get there, how to park a truck, how to cross customs if the group comes from outside. That local experience translates into fewer logistics mistakes.
The fiscal angle of international events
Corp-Merch.MX: How is it invoiced when the client is overseas?
María Fernanda Ojeda: When the client is foreign and the event is billed as a service package, we issue an export CFDI with foreign trade complement, generic foreign RFC (XEXX010101000), and IVA is transferred but not charged. The invoice is in pesos with the day's exchange rate. If the merch is purchased separately, it goes as an export line item with the same mechanics.
When the client is Mexican with an event in Cancún, normal CFDI 4.0 with 16% IVA, and if the client is from another state the delivery is made with Carta Porte 3.0 when the merchandise moves by road or freight.
What is coming in incentive hospitality
Corp-Merch.MX: Where is the segment heading?
María Fernanda Ojeda: I see three lines. The first is experiences over objects: more and more corporates prefer activities (private dinners, cenote tours, cacao ceremonies) over kits of objects. Merch is still important but the experience is the heart.
The second is wellness: groups come with a wellness purpose, and the merch reflects that — bottles engraved with hydration messages, yoga kits, locally-made aromatic candles. The third is local technology: RFID wristbands for tours, QR codes on welcome packs that lead to personalized playlists and maps.
One piece of advice for someone working with DMCs
Corp-Merch.MX: What would you tell a workshop that wants to work with DMCs like yours?
María Fernanda Ojeda: Invest in a dedicated account executive for meetings and incentives tourism. Learn the destination's timelines, be able to quote in twenty-four hours, and keep a minimum stock of local products for contingencies. And approach DMCs at tourism trade shows like Tianguis Turístico México, IBTM Americas or IMEX America. That is where business gets done.
Corp-Merch.MX: Thank you, María Fernanda.
María Fernanda Ojeda: My pleasure.
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María Fernanda Ojeda is a fictional person created for editorial purposes. The opinions, frameworks and figures mentioned do not represent any real person or company. The interview was edited for clarity. Corp-Merch.MX has no commercial, equity or sponsorship relationship with the DMC or the destinations mentioned in the text.