10GATES supports the Riviera Maya following Hurricane Wilma.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico - (November 16, 2005) - In the days leading up to the worst Hurricane on record for the Yucatan Peninsula, 10GATES International was working quietly behind the scenes with Ing. Dario Flota, Executive Director of the Riviera Maya Tourist Board, to establish a CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS Center for the organization.  According to Michael Halle, Chairman and CEO 10GATES International Services Corp, of Miami Florida, the exclusive reservations and information partner of the Riviera Maya Tourist Board, said, "Once it was clear that Wilma could be a serious threat to the region, we moved quickly to establish all staff and technology to support Ing. Dario Flota and the Riviera Maya.....

 We had little time to prepare, but we knew from our experience with Hurricane Emily in July 2005 that if Playa del Carmen lost electricity and phone service, it would be critical to establish alternate means of communication to the outside world to lessen the potential impact on future reservations. "On Wednesday October 19th, I flew to Canada, we knew that it had to ensure that the messages circulated to the marketplace were honest and frequent. We spoke with Dario Flota daily, sometimes many times each day, to obtain updates from President Fox, The Governor, the Secretary of Tourism and anyone else that had timely and relevant information," stated Michael Halle.

When Hurricane Wilma hit, the Riviera Maya Crisis Communications Center was fully prepared to manage communications including E-mail, International Telephone calling through the Toll Free number in the USA and Canada 1-877-7-GO-MAYA (1-877-7-46-6292). Trained professional operators with intimate knowledge of the destination immediately began responding to inquiries from people who had family or friends in the destination as well as those with plans to visit in the near future. While Hurricane Wilma made its way up the coast, hundreds of calls poured into the Crisis Communications Center from relatives, friends and family members of those stranded in area.

"We received many calls and e-mails from people who had friends or family in the area that they could not reach through the normal channels," said Joanne Mottola, the 10GATES Riviera Maya Crisis Communications Center Operations Manager in Canada; "We suddenly found that the Center was one of the only sources of timely and relevant news and we worked closely with the Riviera Maya's Public Relations company in New York City, Adams Unlimited, to update the http://www.rivieramaya.com/, http://www.10gatesrivieramaya.com/ and http://www.cancun.net/ websites with the most up-to-the-minute information possible."

Media, tourists and concerned friends and relatives alike were all looking to the Riviera Maya website to clarify information that was circulating.  Added Michael Halle, "We're so pleased that we could help provide accurate, timely information for all these people in this time of need for the Riviera Maya." 

Once electrical power was restored to Cancun and the 10GATES office were back on line, Karla Sona, Commercial associate of 10Gates international, set her team in motion supporting the Crisis Center by taking overload calls and e-mails. With the Cancun office in full force, the support was even stronger. As an example of the activity, Michael Halle points to the numbers to tell the story: 22,618 minutes of support calls were logged, most between October 20th and 31st.  More than 7,600 minutes were spent answering e-mail messages and another 6,500 minutes were spent gathering, researching and verifying information about people, evacuation status and hotel, airport and road conditions.

The Riviera Maya is open and ready to welcome tourists, with more hotels and attractions reopening over the coming weeks.  Inquiries continue to come into the Center, with the emphasis now on reservations and confirmations of hotel status, flights, tours, golf course conditions and more.  Finally, Halle says, "There is no doubt that the Riviera Maya is already back and will be even stronger and better than it was before Wilma. The 2006 year will be a banner year for the  Riviera Maya".  

For additional information see http://www.10gatesrivieramaya.com/ call 1-877-7-GO-MAYA in Canada or USA or in Cancun 011-52-998-887-5554.

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