Belize Travel Expo opens next week
Next week the third annual edition of Belize’s tourism expo will take place in Belize City. While the three-day event will not be heralded by huge amounts of fanfare, the deals made will be worth millions to the future of the tourism industry. Arreini Palacio has a preview.
“Belize, the eco-cultural destination of the twenty-first century,” is the theme under which the Belize Tourism Industry Association is presenting BETEX ’98. The three-day tourism exposition, which will be held at the Biltmore Plaza, starts on August fifth and will feature displays by hotels, travel agencies, tour operators and even Belizean artists. According to the show’s organizer, Xinia Aguilar, they expect to show over fifty international buyers the best of Belizean tourism.
Xinia Aguilar, Organizer, BETEX ’98
“We have buyers coming from France, Italy, Germany. This year we have more of an international market. We have a person from England and South Africa. It has never been that diversified.”
With a more diverse clientele expected to attend, sellers should become more creative with their tours and package rates in order to sell Belize.
Xinia Aguilar
“The buyers from BETEX should be expecting to be able to come here and look at what we have here in terms of the areas we have to visit in Belize. They are also looking at new rates for 1999. They will also be taken on tours throughout Belize and look at most of what the tours have to offer.”
With many different offers on display, the buyers will have to choose which one will sell best to prospective tourists.
The hoteliers hope to sign contracts from these different companies and we hope to gain tourists. By their coming to the expo they will be bringing tourists to the country. This way when they bring the tourists it will give us economic gain.
And economic gain – for buyers and sellers – is what the show is all about. BETEX ’98 will also be open to the public on Friday August seventh at a charge of two dollars. Arreini Palacio for News Five.
The show’s major sponsors are Grupo Taca and the Belize Tourist Board.
