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When Americans want a high-energy, entertainment-packed spectacle, they head to Las Vegas. For a tropical getaway in Mexico, it’s usually Tulum or Cancún. But Ivan Chávez, executive vice president of Grupo Vidanta, is charting a different course — one lit by torches and traveled by gondola.

The son of legendary Mexican entrepreneur Daniel Chávez Morán, who founded luxury resort developer Grupo Vidanta more than 50 years ago, Chávez is helping reimagine what a world-class resort experience in Mexico can look like.

“Our ultimate goal for a long time has been to make sure that Mexico can compete on the global stage — at the very top of anything we do,” he says.

Chávez oversees VidantaWorld, an enormous resort complex in Nuevo Vallarta. Think Disneyland with more class — and without the characters. Tourism is one of Mexico’s most powerful industries, he notes, but it’s also fiercely competitive.

“You’re not just competing locally,” Chávez says. “You’re competing with Las Vegas, Orlando, even Asia. So whenever we build something here, we’re building it for the global market.”

For Chávez, VidantaWorld is about consolidating the best elements of a great vacation — gourmet dining, luxury accommodations and pristine beaches — into a single immersive destination. Hence the term “world.”

That vision is reflected in everything from high-end hotels and sprawling pools to unconventional offerings like BON Luxury Theme Park, an amusement park designed to eliminate the long wait times that frustrate visitors at traditional parks, a la Cartmanland from South Park.

But the most ambitious addition to VidantaWorld’s entertainment lineup is LUDŌ by Cirque du Soleil, a first-of-its-kind, resident show created exclusively for the resort.

“We believe combining the best of Mexico with the best of global entertainment is critical to delivering that vision,” Chávez says. “That’s why we partnered with Cirque du Soleil.”

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From high wire to deep water

LUDŌ draws loose inspiration from Cirque du Soleil’s iconic aquatic O show in Las Vegas — but legendary director Michel Laprise had no interest in repeating what had already been done.

“I said no three times to this show, even after they had started building the theater,” Laprise says. “The original idea included a small amount of water onstage, but I told them that wasn’t enough.”

Instead, Laprise pushed for a production built around underwater performances that many considered impossible. It quickly became clear that LUDŌ would be as much an engineering and construction challenge as it was a theatrical one.