Interested in getting up to 30% off at Barcelo Hotels & Resorts in Mexico? This offer is for all-inclusive packages with options available in Cancun, Huatulco, Ixtapa, Los Cabos, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta and on the Riviera Maya, offering one upfront, all-encompassing price.

To take advantage of this impressive opportunity for a dream getaway to escape the cold this winter, this special offer from the Barcelo chain must be booked before October 31, for stays between December 24, 2010 and April 30, 2011.

The promotion covers 12 hotels in Mexico: the Barceló Costa Cancún, the Barceló Tucancún Beach, the Barceló Huatulco Beach, the Barceló Ixtapa Beach, the Barceló Los Cabos Palace Deluxe, the Barceló Karmina Palace Deluxe Manzanillo, the Barceló Puerto Vallarta, and on the Riviera Maya: the Maya Beach, the Maya Caribe, the Maya Colonial, the Maya Palace Deluxe and the Maya Tropical.

According to Claudio A. Zboznovits, Barcelo’s vice president of sales and marketing in the U.S. and Canada, “Our all-inclusive plans, coupled with our Winter Warm-Up Sale, ensures that our guests receive the best value with no unwanted surprises at check-out.”

Earlier this week, Sr. Antonio Torres, General Manager of the Hotel Sheraton Maria Isabel in Mexico City, along with Sr. Roger Charteris, President of the Numismatic Association of Mexico, carried out the opening ceremony for an impressive coin and banknote collection commemorating the Mexican Bicentennial Anniversary.

However, though the theme of the exhbition is to commemorate the country’s Bicentennial, the collection is made up of exhibits of the Mexican currency dating back as far as 400 Centuries, the chosen years being 1610, 1710, 1810, 1910 and 2010.

The exhibits are all part of the collection owned by the Numismatic Association of Mexico and offer a glimpse into the political, social and historical changes undergone in the Mexican Republic through the depiction of the most important politicians and historical characters of the country.

Mexico was in fact the first country on the American continent to produce money, in the year 1536, but it wasn’t until the country gained its Independence, in 1820, that the currency was Mexican. Up until then it was under the emblem of New Spain.

This exhibition will run until the end of September, so anyone wishing to visit this interesting aspect of Mexican history will have to do so during the country’s patriotic month, under the shadow of the Angel of the Independence along the most-famous Avenue in the country’s capital: Avenida Reforma.

If you have the opportunity to visit the hotel on Independence Day, September 15^th, you’ll also be able to enjoy live music, cock-fighting and dominate, or get thrown off, a mechanical bull!

Hermosillo’s Vado del Río district is the latest location chosen by the Accor Hospitality Group for its most recent hotel, with the inauguration of the Hermosillo Ibis bringing the Group’s total number of hotels in the Mexican Republic to 10, thus offering over 1,400 rooms.

The Ibis Hermosillo offers 144 suites decorated in contemporary style to provide functional commodity, along with all the necessities of the business traveller; close to the Historic Centre in the commercial and financial zone of the city, just 10 kilometers from Hermosillo International Airport.

Classified as three star, the rooms offer cable TV, air conditioning and direct-dial telephone services. There is also an on-site restaurant specializing in pastas and succulent meat options prepared over an open grill, the food and bar services being available on a 24-hour basis.

The most common brand used by the Accor Hospitality Group in Mexico is the Ibis, with a further three hotels under this brand currently in the pipeline for Mexico: the Ibis Ciudad Juarez Consulado: to open in late 2010; the Ibis Cancun Centro: scheduled opening for January 2011 and the Ibis San Luis Potosi: planned for mid 2011.

Under the Ibis hotel brand, the Group has other options in Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey (2) and Merida, In addition, the Group offers Novotel brand hotels in Mexico City: Santa Fe and Monterrey: Valle. The Group began its operations in Mexico in the year 2002.

Mexico’s Tourism Minister, Gloria Guevara, recently announced that, according to the latest studies released by Datatur, the number of hotel rooms available in Mexico’s principal destinations has increased by 4.6% during the first half of this year, when compared with the same period in 2009.

The latest figures cover Mexico’s top-70 destinations, with the aforementioned figure being the average increase, the zone registering the largest hotel-room increase being the Riviera Maya, where room numbers went up by 8.1 percent.

In total, the number of additional hotel rooms currently available has gone up by 13,525 when comparing the year-on-year figures throughout the network of destinations included in the survey.

Further good news is that the occupation levels, despite the higher number of available rooms, have also registered positive numbers. In the case of the Riviera Maya, once again the leader, the hotel-room-occupation figure was up 22.1 percent during the January to June period this year.

Westin Hotels return to Mexico City, opening their latest offering in conjunction with Starwood Hotels and Resorts in the ever-growing business zone of Santa Fe, within walking distance of the BBVA Bancomer Convention Center and with stunning views of the two impressive volcanoes at the other side of the city: Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl.

The hotel is housed in the Park Plaza, which also offers over 65,000 square meters of office space and a variety of up-market stores, as well as its prime location for the travelling business visitor to the Mexican capital.

Here, at the Westin’s sixth Mexico-based hotel, the company has introduced their ‘Wellness’ theme, the smoke-free presentation of the global Westin portfolio, which includes the brand’s healthy-living initiatives for the business and vacation traveler alike, offering s other healthy details such as the 24-hour WestinWORKOUT(R) gym, an outdoor pool and the SuperfoodsRX menu.

Also on offer at the The Westin Santa Fe, Mexico City are almost 1,300 square meters of space allocated to meeting and banquet salons, with on-site catering available for all your business and social events.

Westin’s other Mexican locations include Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Lagunamar Ocean Resort Villas (a Starwood Vacation Ownership property) and San Luis in Potosi. Meanwhile, the Starwood Hotels & Resorts chain has 22 hotels and resorts in Mexico, with a further 62 options throughout Latin America.

The Grand Palladium Riviera Maya Resort & Spa Complex, part of the Fiesta Hotel Group, has just received the most prestigious award with regard to the protection of the environment, the Green Globe Award, which is granted by the EarthCheck Organization.

Respect for the environment is of great importance in any sector, but given that tourism is often located in the most beautiful parts of the globe, it is always nice to hear that the world’s natural attractions are being respected, whilst benefitting the local communities.

The Grand Palladium Riviera Maya Resort & Spa has, without doubt, been given the award for its care of the surrounding habitat whilst reducing its carbon footprint through the reduction in the use of energy (5%) and strict control with regard to the disposal of waste.

The ‘Green Globe’ awards recognise those companies that have gone above and beyond the necessary legal requirements with respect to the environmental controls placed by the local governments.

According to Stewart Moore, spokesman for EC3 Global, “The Grand Palladium Riviera Maya Resort Complex is an example of an organization which has a proven commitment to environmentally sustainable tourism.

In a bid to reduce money laundering, the Mexican government, some months ago, limited the amount of money any one person could change, now there is the question of holidaymakers also being affected.

However, recent meetings between the government and the private sector have been studying the problem and they have come up with the idea of installing more cash machines and sales-point bank terminals in hotels and other tourism-sector businesses.

In the words of Gloria Guevara, Mexico’s tourism minister, “hotel’s and tourism-sector participants will also be given the corresponsibility of managing the exchange limits on dollars correctly.”

This is good news for visitors to Mexico. If the plan goes ahead, that will mean less problems for the estimated 22.6 million visitors throughout this year, who are also expected to benefit the country therough the spending of around 13 billion dollars.