Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Says BTB Is Assisting International Guests

Manuel Heredia, Jr.

Earlier today, we caught up with the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Jr., a resident of San Pedro Town. Heredia Junior commented on the huge loss to tourism and the efforts by hoteliers on the island, as well as the Belize Tourism Board to assist guests of Ramon’s Village Resort who were affected by the fire.  According to Heredia, the resort was just experiencing a significant upturn, having undertaken a complete renovation recently.

Manuel Heredia, Jr., Minister of Tourism

“Just months ago, probably a little over a year ago, they started on a massive rehabilitation of the hotel and it became one of the best again.  And, according to the numbers, they have been doing well, almost eighty percent occupancy for the past year, year and a half or so and they were still doing good.  They had twenty-two guests in a slow season over there but fortunately there was no loss of life, nobody was injured and with the cooperation of the police and the fire department and the mayor was there also from the beginning, along with me, making sure that whatever assistance can be done they there were there making sure that the guests and the management also were not at risk.  Thank God that everything ended in that way because it could have been worse. We had Mr. Kevin Gonzalez, who is in charge of one section, a head of department over here.  He lives on the island, he was there making sure that all the guests were safe, taking names and so.  And this morning, early this morning our office in San Pedro was making sure that [guests]] who lost what[ever] documents, making sure that we can get them over to the embassy to get documents.  Because, you know, in Belize we are known to provide the best services and even though we have nothing to do directly with the finances of these people or the guests of Ramon’s, we like to be united.  I feel that the guests were put at Victoria House and Sun Breeze and they felt very, very happy about that and I’m sure that they will remain over here for the rest of their vacation because they felt well attended.  They felt that we were there for them and that is the Belizean way of doing business, right.”

The B.T.B. also issued a release this afternoon acknowledging Ramon’s Village as Hotel of the Year at its annual tourism awards 2012 and as one of the oldest on the island, in operation since 1982.