Tourism moves south in wake of Keith
While losses in agriculture continue to mount, the hard hit tourism industry is working feverishly to minimize its losses. Director of Tourism Tracy Taegar tells News Five that while San Pedro and Caye Caulker are not quite ready for guests, the disaster has allowed other destinations to increase their exposure as well as their bottom line.
Tracy Taegar, Director, Belize Tourism Board
“Certainly the Belize Tourism Board will like to ensure the tourism experience is not compromised when people go to San Pedro and Caye Caulker. Based on our conversations with NEMO on those islands, and based on our own rapid damage assessments, we feel that the islands will be ready in time for… at least eighty percent of the operation will be ready for thanksgiving weekend. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t go to Caye Caulker or San Pedro, but we don’t recommend it. Right now, there is a shortage of water, they are rationing food, heavy equipment is all over the island for the restoration clean up, and restoration purposes. Electricity and communications are not fully operational. We feel it’s best not to go to these islands until we can get a better assessment of where things are.”
“We certainly encourage people to come to Belize. We prefer them to come to Belize than another destination. But there are a lot of amazing vacation opportunities other than San Pedro and Caye Caulker.”
“The Belize Hotel Association has been working with the Placencia destination getting them to offer special discounts or special commissions to hotel owners in San Pedro so they can steer some of their traffic there until they are fully operational.”
On Wednesday, Taegar and the Prime Minister will be going to New York for a news briefing in which they will inform the international press about the country’s recovery from Hurricane Keith.
