Belize Tourism Board’s Seleni Matus resigns
Seleni Matus
On Wednesday, in his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister spoke of a six point seven percent increase in the second quarter of this year in overnight visitors. You would think that with such growth, the Director of Tourism would be resting on her laurels. Well, not so; this afternoon, Seleni Matus resigned from the post; a job she took on in February, 2010. The board meeting was expecting a report from her, instead they got her resignation. To her credit, Matus spearheaded major changes at the Belize Tourism Board but it is known that some board members had complained about her management style. For weeks, pressure had been building; there were major differences with the C.E.O. and the board over unauthorized spending. Recently, without board consent, she employed a “known P.U.P.” who was quickly terminated and is suing the B.T.B. since he was recruited from a previous job only to be fired in a matter of weeks. When contacted this evening, the B.T.I.A.’s Jim Scott confirmed that Matus resigned with immediate effect. Matus told the Board that she was returning to the United States.
my people wake up.don’t let the pm talk you inot voting for him again.about what is up or down.please get everything in writing.remember once a person mak money or power change them.never trust them again.I hope Matus say something before she take the plane back to the usa.
in this industry there is no UDP or PUP WHATS WRONG WITH HER GETTING A PUP TO WORK HE NEEDS A JOB
Tourism has come to a standstill in Belize. Almost every Hotel in the country is For Sale. Tourists are mistreated at the Borders and Airports. Tourism is dead with the UDP’s
Very limited political experience sorry mom
Please tell me since when you have to be with a certian party to hold a job if you are qualified for that position. Every part of government in Belize is out of order. The whole country is out of order, omg, please who is in charge. It seems like everyone has lost their minds. The Bible talks about the flood that wiped out the world, and only Noah a righteous man and his family and the animals survived in a plan designed by God to wipe out evil and the evil people. Maybe it is time for God to help Belize to start over.
Lindsay Garbutt, got his brand new toyota SUV, it costs a good penny and also cost Santi Castillo, a veteran and experienced businessman, his position on the Board. That is just one instance, the list is a mile long.
Lindsay, you can-barely-utter-a-coherent-sentence loser, why don’t you sell that SUV and try give back all those Belizeans you sold those piece of junk suzuki engines to? This moron, when he was the director of Friends of Nature now Southern Environmental Association, used his position to convince people to buy suzuki engines at discounted price and even gave credit, in turn offering everyone a 1 year warranty. Most if not all the engines fell apart within the warranty time frame, went to Lindsay for their money and to this day he can’t cough up the money.
Lindsay, i got one thing to say to you, Karma is a !@#$%, and when it bites your @$$, i hope you know why. Keep the money mofo, you need it more than me.
very true eye in the sky. Immigration officers need to be trained to be polite and welcome people when they visit our country, same goes for customs, then when visitors finally get in the country so many times they get harassed by police officers, in cayo we see them get pulled over by transport and get harassed. Very high percentage of the officers (customs immigration police and transport) are very mean.
I was in the QRP program for 9 years & recently returned to the US. The BTB treated me terribly after my husband died ( we were BOTH in the program ). The Ministry Of Tourism Is a joke, and the majority of Belizeans get NOTHING at all from the US dollars that this leech sucks out of trusting foreigners! Gringos who know better avoid that place like the plague. Their fancy building is for show and the armed guards are there to keep out most BELIZEANS!
And another thing- Why does Seleni get to come to MY country and compete for MY job when things are bad at home? I had to leave Belize because I RAN OUT OF MONEY and the BTB said I had to go! No matter that I had a life there and had spent over half a million US dollars in Belize in 9 years ( and I had the paperwork to prove it! ). Can anyone give me an HONEST answer? Forget it, it’s too late, I’m GONE. I LOVE YOU BELIZE!
It’s a very serious sitaution when the director of tourism resignsfrom a post which was recently filled. With the bigger picture only a sketch on the canvas this put our already strugling tourism indutry in more turmoil. Not to say there are not more competent people to fill the post, the task is now to prevent a reoccurence of such a situation.
Maybe she didn’t get the share of the 6million that will be used to “build the boardwalk in San Pedro” where she cowardly hid from the stakeholders when there was a consultation!
If everyone understood the BTB and how it has operated for years SELENI has been the only director of this institution that has a modern and new focus in leading us towards a competitive destination as we should have been a long time ago. The best of the best we loose and have no vision as a ministry tyo work together when you can see that this lady mrs. Matus has given results in such a short time and in turbulent economic times. Its our loss mrs Matus and we have miopic leadership to see the value.
Why is the board of BTB not standing up to mr Garbut…will they now buy suzuki motorcycles? conflict of interest. Yes the downhill slide began when Santi suggested a new SUV was not necessary. Seleni had fresh ideas but a dreadful CEO. So we get to keep the rascal and lose the person with vision.
Very good display by Mrs. Matus. It shows that she is no puppet, same with Mr. Santi. BTB you lost a good person. In regards to Belizean comment, i beleive these immigration officers country wide, especially the one at the Western, Airport and Northern (CZL) Border urgently needs PR training. Same goes for Custom Officers, who feel they are above the law.
The country of Belize is highly Corrupted for so many years no matter who is on the board , every one in the politics are only for then and there family , now i can’t even tell my friends to go visit belize i have read so many bad things that people say about the toursim in belize and its so sad .belize will soon be like india more poor .
Nothing in belize will ever change and this is sad. The country development hinges on this sort of political BS. Belizeans should not be penalized for the way they vote and neither should they be promoted by the way they vote. The only means of an employment of promotion should be whether you can do the job or not.