Moving the Tourism Industry forward

seleni matus

The tourism industry is currently in the slow season so stakeholders gathered today to take stock of the industry with a view to shore up the number of visitors to the Jewel.  That was the focus of discussions by members of the Belize Hotel Association which held a general meeting at the Black Orchid Resort in Burrell Boom.  The discussions centered on strengthening the marketing strategy to promote the services of the entire country. Seleni Matus, the Director of the Belize Tourism Board, explained the importance of amending the current strategy.

Seleni Matus, Director, BTB

“One of the objectives of my talk today was to reenergize the private sector and the industry on a whole. As many people know, the Belize Tourism Board is a big partner of the Belize Hotel Association as it is with many of the other tour associations like the other Belie Tourism Industry Association. So it’s absolutely important that we work together and to keep a pulse on what changes are occurring here on the local front, especially for the hotel sector, which is such an important partner of the overall tourism product that we offer. So my objective was basically to come in and to talk about more about the Belize Tourism Board’s efforts in terms of gearing up for a major shift in focus and priorities and it’s seventy-five days into this new job so it was a very short report out in terms of progress and advances being made so far.”

Jose Sanchez

“Okay, you mentioned a change in focus. What would be the new focus of our entire industry?”

Seleni Matus

“The first most important part of changes is revamping our marketing program. We’ve been doing a very good job. There’s always room for improvement and that’s what we’re focused on. So a big part of our push will be to really look at new ways to put ourselves in front of the daily lives of that target audience that we are bringing or would like to bring to Belize—we’d like to bring the story of Belize to. And so we’re talking about those tourists or those individuals in the U.S. and Canada that have a sense of adventure, want to experience a new culture and of course Belize has so much to offer in that regard. So we’re talking about younger as well as middle aged individuals who are looking to come out to places to places like Belize. Another important priority of ours will be to ensure that once the visitor arrives in Belize that we’re providing the best service possible and so we’re looking at elevating national standards for tour operators, tour guides, hotels, also ensuring that there is sustained training to help suppliers come up to standard and of course monitoring compliance to standards.”

Last year two hundred and thirty-two thousand tourists visited Belize.  Matus said that in the first quarter alone for 2010, there has already been a five point eight percent increase.  The BTB director also said one in every four jobs has a relation to the tourism industry.