B.T.I.A. to focus on increased growth in ‘08

Over the last decade, tourism has become a major player in the Belizean economy. But today as partners in the sector gathered for the twenty-second annual general meeting of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, News Five’s Marion Ali discovered that there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Rosella Zabaneh, President, National B.T.I.A.
“Tourism is not gonna stop here, it’s gonna grow and it’s gonna grow very big. My main thing is that we must teach Belizeans, teach our people what is to come and how to meet those demands that are coming so that we can be players in this industry.”

Marion Ali, Reporting
That is the new focus of the Belize Tourism Industry Association as the organisation seeks to improve the country’s six percent growth rate to something more on par with other destinations in the region.

Andrew Godoy, Executive Director, B.T.I.A.
“We’re not competing with our neighbours, we’re not competing with the Guatemalas and the Costa Ricas. We competing with even bed and breakfast in Bali, Indonesia, so that’s a very serious concern for us because we’re realising now that we’re losing market share, market share that we so desperately need.”

“Six percent is just not enough. We could do much better than that and I think that over the next year and over the coming years that if we continue the strategic partnership with the public sector we should see an increase in arrivals for the overnight sector.”

Godoy says there are contributing factors that limit us to this inhibited growth rate, the main one of which is conservative advertising.

Andrew Godoy
“Challenges such as the amount of monies that we spend on marketing, our marketing budget, which is significantly low compared to other countries.”

Another concern is the lack of equal opportunity for small businesses. B.T.I.A. President Rosella Zabaneh says during the next year, the association will also concentrate on greater inclusion of the entrepreneurs, provided they meet the requirements.

Rosella Zabaneh
“This is one of the things that I want to push for this year, that we do more training because I know that most Belizeans are capable of doing the job, the point is to make them understand how to go about doing it in a way in which it is required.”

Marion Ali
“Aside from the courses, are they offered other opportunities, concessions, financing for whatever they might need?”

Rosella Zabaneh
“That is one of the other things that I want to work on. We’re doing this I.D.B. MIF project. … They could do small loans to individuals that want to start their own little business for up to ten thousand dollars, so these are the areas that we’re trying to get them to participate.”

But while more people participation and a bigger advertising budget might pave the way to more significant revenues, the ability to accommodate more tourists is another issue. We asked Godoy for B.T.I.A.’s take on large scale developmental projects such as Stake Bank and the Carnival Cruise Port.

Andrew Godoy
“Most of the development that’s taking place is within coastal areas and they are tourism developments. There are a couple down south in Placencia area, Seine Bight. These things to the B.T.I.A., we see them as if there is not the proper studies done for these E.I.A’s for these types of developments we have to object them, we have to have some say, some input into it and to help guide and steer these developers.”

“So we’ve not objected to any development, whether it be large scale or small scale, and we’ve actually issued a position paper today. While it may seem that most of the times we’ve objected to a development, whether it be large development or small development, our objections are always justified.”

According to the B.T.I.A, in 2006 tourism brought in revenues of five hundred and seven point seven million dollars for Belize, while expenditures totalled close to four hundred million. Marion Ali for News Five.

During this morning’s ceremony B.T.I.A. also introduced the latest edition of “Destination Belize” and unveiled its updated website, www.BTIA.org.