Still No Response from G.O.B. on B.T.I.A.’s Letter to the Prime Minister

The Phillip Goldson International Airport is less than two days away from resuming all operations, following a suspension of arrivals and departures, with the exception of repatriation flights, since March twenty-third. American and United flights are said to be full but the passengers are mostly Belizeans. Tonight final preparations are underway, including a walkthrough of the airport on Wednesday; however, government is yet to respond to concerns raised by the Belize Tourism Industry Association regarding its existing strategy.  On September twenty-first, B.T.I.A. wrote to Prime Minister Barrow asking him to reconsider the plan of action currently in place going into the reopening on October first.  Along with measures that are in place for visitors upon arrival in Belize, are additional procedures to ensure the safety of guests at hotels and other related businesses that have received gold standard certification.  According to Executive Director John Burgos, B.T.I.A. is clamouring for equality across the industry.

John Burgos

John Burgos, Executive Director, B.T.I.A.

“What we want is a leveled playing field, we don’t want it restricted and only a few to be allowed to operate because only a few would be allowed to meet the gold standard.  What we want is for the gold standard to be able to be met by everyone and that is where the B.T.B. and the Ministry of Tourism need to adjust those standards so that the regular taxi man that comes upon a tourist walking around wanting to get from point A to point B and can say, “You know what, I am certified and I can take you there because I am taking all the right measures.”  We are in support of the gold standards, I think it’s a good thing, I think that they just need to really make it more accessible to all tourism stakeholders. We’re waiting to hear if any of the SI [Statutory Instruments] and so on are going to be revised or the current protocols are going to be revised.  We want to hear, well we’re hoping to get a response from them, so I’m going to be following up on that to see where they are with our recommendations, if there are any considerations that are going to be made to implement any of them.”