B.T.I.A.’s survey says recession effects not so bad
Members of the Belize Tourism Industry Association and other industry stakeholders gathered today at the Radisson for B.T.I.A.’s Bi-Annual General Meeting. The event usually serves the dual purpose of bringing members together for an update on the status of the tourism industry as well as to encourage new members to sign up. As expected, the global recession and its impact on Belize’s tourism was one of the topics up for discussion at the gathering. And while it is common knowledge that the economic downturn has caused a drop in tourist arrivals, B.T.I.A. Board President, Dionne Miranda stated that the picture doesn’t seem as gloomy as previously thought. Miranda says that a survey conducted among their members has shown that although the numbers are down, some sectors are not as badly affected as others.
Dionne Chamberlain Miranda, President, B.T.I.A. Board of Directors
“We’ve found that it’s the smaller hotels that are facing this quite a bit. One of the things that you’ll realize with the recession is that the lay offs, in the United States for example, are the middle class and the lower totem pole. So one of the things is that these are people who won’t be travelling anymore and those are the ones that were booking at the small hotels and small agencies. One of the things that I must mention is that we’re not in as bad a condition as many of us may have thought. However, we’re not in a great position either. So there is a balance that needs to be met. We realize that some area of the country are facing more hardships than other parts, which means that our marketing efforts need to be more creative, there needs to be a change of focus and we need to lobby for the areas that are most important. One of the things we realize is that taxation on tourism industry is very high and this is one of the things that we need to focus on with our government.”
Miranda also said that B.T.I.A. is currently negotiating with Government the recently implemented regulations for foreign buses.
