Tourism minister says he’ll listen closely to stakeholders
Tourism: it’s big business in Belize with a constituency widely spread both geographically and financially. With a new administration taking over in Belmopan, the industry was all ears yesterday as the minister made his first major address to stakeholders. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Despite a slow start, tourism in Belize has skyrocketed to become the country’s biggest single foreign exchange earner and a major source of employment. But after its meteoric rise over the last decade, growth in overnight arrivals has leveled off and the number of cruise visitors has dropped drastically.
Kenrick Theus, President, Belize Hotel Association
“We are committed to tourism’s expansion and that is an everyday thing, we’re not committed just today, everyday because we work in the industry.”
In an effort to actively participate in the new Government’s plans for tourism, this week the Belize Hotel Association organized a business luncheon, with Minister Manuel Heredia as the guest of honour. According to B.H.A. President Kenrick Theus, the priority is the implementation of a national tourism policy which would coordinate the actions of government agencies and industry partners.
Kenrick Theus
“For example, if you wanted to build a pier in a village, the village might have, their bi-laws are there but they are not being enforced. The village will say no, we don’t want a pier, you could easily go to Belmopan and get that pier and go against what the villagers really want. A national policy would make it where it’s a seamless thing whereby if you wanted a pier, the village would be able to reject or authorize that and once that is said and done, it’s final. That is the policy for land. It would also help with zoning for example so we’d have, for example, nobody would be able to build something in a certain area because the national policy would dictate that is not so, it would be like a governing rules for our country that we can definitely guide tourism in the way we want it to go.”
If adopted into law, Belize would be only one in a handful of countries with a national tourism policy.
Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism
“I am here to dedicate a hundred percent of my time so that the industry can move forward in a positive way and the most important thing is that I will be a Minister of consultation.”
According to Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia, his plan is to use teamwork to tackle the challenges facing the industry.
Manuel Heredia
“I personally believe that the best way is the overnight tourism but definitely we have the cruise tourism also that is very vital. We have a lot of investment being done over there already. We have a lot of stakeholders that depend from that cruise tourism also. I feel that we are looking at this point as to all the possibilities as to how we move forward especially with the cruise tourism.”
While low occupancy rates are a persistent problem for hoteliers, repeated complaints from cruise visitors, especially about Belize City, have affected the relationship between the cruise lines and government officials.
The situation climaxed last August when the cruise lines threatened to stop calls to Belize if we couldn’t get our act together.
Tracy Taegar Panton, Director of Tourism (August 28th 2007)
“The primary concern is the whole organization and management of the immediate area outside of the tourism village. You know, all that from the Tourism Village all the way to the Swing Bridge, there needs to be some zoning in terms of traffic management in the area, moving the vendors off the street side because it just creates a lot of congestion. And we have a tremendous amount of harassment of our visitors which is a major concern. There are visitors who are afraid to leave the gates of F.S.T.V. because they are accosted by the various groups that are working outside.”
But according to Michael Singh, Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Tourism, talks this week with both Carnival and Royal Caribbean in Miami were positive. Singh says he outlined plans to improve Belize City’s infrastructure but both lines favour docking at a pier instead of tendering passengers to shore.
Michael Singh, C.E.O., Ministry of Tourism
“They have expressed what their preferences are and both companies have different preferences as to where they would like to see a cruise ship dock but at the end of day what we’ve agreed to do is that they will both come and give us presentations on what it is that they feel that they can contribute to help us achieve that goal. And if that goal is not achieved by 2009 that would be fantastic and that is our intention to try to make that happen. If that goal is not achieved by 2009, they have assured me that by no means will they be pulling their itineraries from Belize.”
According to Singh, Caribbean destinations, which include Belize, make up forty percent of the world cruise market. Through the B.T.B., aggressive international marketing campaigns will continue, especially in places like Canada since its currency is rising and its citizens represent the fastest growing source of visitors to Belize. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
The new Belize Tourism Board is chaired by Gach Guerrero, with members Santino Castillo, Mariam Roberson, Rosella Zabaneh, Einer Gomez, Elito Arceo, Lindsay Garbutt, Stanley Longsworth Senior, Tracy Panton and C.E.O. Mike Singh as an ex-officio member. In 2007 overnight tourist arrivals increased by only one point eight percent over 2006 to two hundred fifty-one thousand, six hundred and fifty-six. The number of cruise arrivals declined by four percent to a little over six hundred twenty-four thousand.
