New president elected to B.T.I.A.
It is the beginning of the peak season in the tourism industry and with tourist arrivals slightly down and a financial crisis gripping the U.S., which is where most of our tourists originate, stakeholders in the industry met today to look at the season and challenges ahead. Jose Sanchez reports from the Biltmore Plaza where the B.T.I.A. met.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
The Belize Tourism Industry Association, the network of businesses that caters to tourists who fly or come by cruise ship to enjoy the natural resources of Belize, held its annual general meeting today. Outgoing president, Rosella Zabaneh, is hopeful for the tourism industry.
Rosella Zabaneh, Outgoing President, B.T.I.A.
“In a private sector industry, I feel that we need to play a major role in tourism in our country. It’s not only for the hotel owners and restaurant owners, it’s for all of us as Belizeans. My role over the past few years has been involved in promoting tourism in Central America and also promoting tourism in our country in the North American market and in the European market. This is a huge market, it is a global market. The economic trends at the moment are down but we still carry that hope that with us being so close to the North American market, which is only about an hour or two hours away, we will still have quite a few tourists coming into our country.”
Andrew Godoy, Outgoing Executive Director, BTIA
“My coverage basically talked about some of the initiatives, the partnerships that we have with international organisations. We address the issue, the de-reservation of Bacalar Chico, the increase in electricity rates in the industry, we could not afford any operational costs than were high as is. We were glad to see the actual paving of the Placencia Road. That was something that we’ve been advocating for for some while now. While we heard that it was coming, it was finally here this year so we were pleased for that. And then just to look at some of the processes that the new administration has taken on in terms of consultation with the industry. First we see where the government, through our committee of highly technical people led by Dr. Barnett, had met with the national BTIA, with our various destination representatives, and also with the different sectors of BTIA to address the issues of budget allocation as it would affect tourism.”
Elections were held at the A.G.M. and the new President is Dionne Chamberlain- Miranda; First Vice President: Jim Scott; Second Vice President: Catherine Paz; Secretary: Valerie Woods Smith and Director: Ian Lizarraga. Chamberlain Miranda is hopeful about the prospects for her association.
Jose Sanchez
“How do you as the new president of BTIA see your association bringing tourism dollars to Belize?”
Dionne Chamberlain Miranda, President, BTIA
“I see us becoming a lot more aggressive, I see us learning to collaborate a lot more. This morning we learned the term coopitition which is a word used by the OAS representative about the fact that we have to cooperate more, collaborate more, to be sustainable and be more competitive. And it is true, now that we are facing harder times, we have to spend our dollars together. And we are going to be focusing heavily on pushing out the Belize name and stop focusing on individual properties because realistically once we bring people to Belize, a difference will be had. But having the crisis around the word in terms of finances, there is still a market that needs to take a vacation. They may take shorter vacations, they may spend a little bit less but it’s up to us to make Belize the most attractive destination. There are also markets like Canada which we haven’t been focusing on very heavily. There is a market for family travel, there is a market for romance and these are the areas that we plan to tap into.”
And tapping into new markets can only improve Belize as a destination for tourism dollars. Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.
Chamberlain says that the projects started by the previous association will continue and they also intend to revamp B.T.I.A.’s website and create a link to all its members.
