B.T.B. says it will host a consultation in Placencia

Roger Espejo

Cruise Sub-committee Chairman Roger Espejo says that the Belize Tourism Board is actively participating in a readiness consultation in the south to field questions and concerns from stakeholders who are interested in the project.

Roger Espejo, Cruise Sub-committee Chairman, B.T.B.

“The consultation is very important and we want to send that message very clearly. So that is why we’ve had the recent consultations and we are going to have more this year. So that is our primary role to be there to answer questions on behalf of the B.T.B. in terms of what our role would normally be in developing the product down south. The B.T.B. does destination planning, we do product development and that is our key role in this. Many questions that have been fielded from the public in these consultations have been how will B.T.B. assist us or guide or lead us in terms of developing our product, our destination, our communities….very crucial, very important. In terms of the readiness study, the B.T.B. will be conducting a readiness study very soon; within the next month we are going to roll out that program. And it is going to be geared at that portion of the country that stands to benefit from cruise tourism. We want to know how ready each community is which will guide our decisions in terms of strategy in terms of shore excursions, in terms of the amount of passengers that we are able to receive at different locations.”

The NCL and B.T.B. teams say they will be holding a consultation in Placencia in the coming weeks.