BHA presents cruise forum recommendations

At the end of September, the Belize Hotel Association held its first Cruise Ship Impact Forum. Today, they presented the recommendations brought forward by the various industry stakeholders. News 5 spoke with the President of the BHA and the Minister of Tourism this afternoon.

Maria Otero, Pres. Belize Hotel Association

?I think the main concerns were basically the uncontrolled growth that we had and the way that things were going within the last couple of years. We really want to focus on making sure that we have a site inventory so we can know how we can spread the tourists arriving in Belize. We also want to focus on the carrying capacity of the sites since that is going to be important to make sure that we have a fair share for the overnight guests as well.?

Mark Espat,

?Firstly, I think this effort, which I know entailed a lot of work and a lot of resources should be applauded. The list is long. In the coming weeks and months we will be looking at each of these recommendations, many of them we have discussed before, but the Hotel Association is a partner in this process, as is the cruise industry association, and the tour operators and the tour guides. So I think today is very encouraging from the standpoint that the industry is in tune to the issues and know what they are, and they are willing to step out on a limb and say to the Government and say to the Ministry that these are important.?

Maria Otero

?I think there is a lot of interest and as Mike said, it?s something that we can?t look at and let it go by. It is the future of the next generation, so it will depend on how we handle it now.?

Copies of the presentations made at the Cruise Ship Impact forum are available from BHA.