New Tourism Director says there is a need for change of strategy
Belize Tourism Board
LoveFM – Yesterday the Belize Tourism Board presented its new management direction at a lunch press conference with the media at the Radisson Fort George Hotel. During the conference, the BTB presented its new Director of Tourism Seleni Matus and Chairman of the Board Lindsay Garbutt. The new management said that as of now, it is no longer “business as usual” for the BTB.
Lindsay Garbutt; Chairman of the Board: “Recognizing the importance of tourism as a premier economic driver of the Belizean economy I know that with the honour comes responsibility. I am very comfortable that with this board, united as we are, that we will move tourism forward in the way that the new director just explained. We are committed to taking a new approach to how we move forward our tourism agenda. It is an approach that will be grounded in stronger with tourism stakeholders throughout the country. It is an approach that will see us visiting more regularly with stakeholders in each and every district, town and village in Belize. We are further committed to developing new strategies to meet the new and emerging challenges of our times”
And those challenges include the economic downfall, which has prompted a drop in revenues for the BTB. Last year alone, BTB suffered a fifteen percent decrease in accommodation tax revenues which is about seventy-five percent of its overall revenues. Over the next two to three months, the BTB hopes to work on and finalize its key targets.
Seleni Matus; Director of Tourism
“One of the key priorities is this concept of results oriented planning. We need to very quickly, within the next two to three months, clearly define an action plan that will articulate what the key activities and the recalibrated tactics are that will take us to the next level and position Belize as a leader in destination stewardship and really help us to refresh the branding and marketing activities that we have going. Clearly, it is also important that we look at transparency and accountability and so what we intend to do in this action plan is lay out very clearly what the indicators are that we will be using to measure our results and to hold ourselves accountable to the people of Belize.”
Under the new leadership, BTB is looking at producing “concrete advances and results” over the next year to fifteen months. The BTB is also looking at strengthening its partnerships with key stakeholders including the government which has stated that tourism is a key element of its national economic development plan. Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and Culture, Manuel Heredia reiterated the need for change.
Manuel Heredia; Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation and culture
“The GOB recognizes that new leadership is need to open a new chapter in sustainable tourism development that will help to more effectively position Belize as a tourism destination in the fiercely competitive marketplace that we find ourselves in.”
The BTB plans to work closely with government on airlift capacity, investment promotion, policy and regulation implementation and inter-agency coordination. The overall plan, though, includes three components.
Seleni Matus
“Clearly there is going to be an immediate effort to strengthen our institution, the BTB. This will start by developing what I keep referring to as the game changing action plan with the input of stakeholders it will be a short term plan with a very clear focus. We will be ruthless about keeping on track. We have for very long tried to be everything to everyone and that has not worked and so we definitely need to revisit what we do and how we do and ensure that we are really investing in those activities that have the highest return for our industry. Another key element of our new approach is partnerships and outreach and while we have worked very closely with private sector and with civil society and other GOB agencies we definitely need to do a lot more work there. We will be looking to, with our partners, define shared goals and a collective work plan.”
The third includes securing additional sources of income. As a part of its plan, the BTB is looking at launching campaigns for repeat visitation, converting cruise ship visitors to overnight visitors, exploring new markets such as Canada, Europe and Latin America, and forming strategic relationships with airlines. Furthermore, they are looking at establishing and elevating operating standards and providing trainings for its adoption; provide more training for frontline personnel such as customs, immigration and police; and launching awareness campaigns among students.
