B.T.B. INTRODUCES NEW MARKETING COMPANY

August 12, 2008

The Belize Tourism Board today introduced a newly contracted marketing agency for Belize. With the election of a new Board of Directors and the private sector, it was decided that Belize needed to seek out a new marketing strategy. B-V-K is the new marketing and communications agency now tasked with attracting new visitors to the country. Director of Tourism, Tracy Panton says that the Board invests about 8 million Belize dollars in marketing every year which is about 50 percent of their budget.
Tracy Panton, Director of Tourism, Belize Tourism Board

"BVK will be representing us in North America, in the United States and in Canada which is still our largest source market for tourism to Belize, so we are excited about that. A lot of the recommendations BVK is making to the industry is based on solid research and studies that have been done specifically to Belize and so it helps us to target our audience more effectively and certainly have a greater return on our investment. Unless people know about the country and develop an interest to visit the country we certainly cannot grow the tourism market."

A seven member team of BVK is currently in the country experiencing the tourism product that they will in turn have to sell to the millions of travelers they target in North America, the US and Canada. Yanick Dalhouse is a Supervisor in the Public Relations Department of BVK.

Yanick Dalhouse, Supervisor, Public Relations Department, BVK

"We really see BVK being able to work with the BTB and all the private sector individuals to help encourage more tourists to come to Belize by directly targeting them. We have done a lot of research to identify who our targets really are. We talk about the mainstream group and really these are key individuals who want an experience like Belize, want the adventure, want to learn something new, looking for something experiential and at the end of the day want to go to resorts that offer all of the amenities that all of the properties here offer. And I think what we are going to be working on and it's a continual process is directly targeting those individuals through our creative advertising, our traditional forms of communication, making ads that directly speaks to them. In terms of public relations, our goals are to target the publications, the journalist that are speaking to these individuals with very solid story ideas that can help them express and really vocalize what it is to experience various aspects of Belize."

Shakira Oxley Tsai is the Director of marketing and public relations at the Belize Tourism Board. Tsai says the work that BVK will be tasked with is key to the operations carried out by the BTB in an effort to maintain and or improve on the product.

Shakira Oxley Tsai, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, BTB

"They are going to be responsible for ensuring that Belize gets greater publicity in the International Market place. So they are going to be building a relationship with the international press editorially as well as ensuring that we have a presence in the different magazines that we are targeting and generate greater interest for the destination as a tourism vacation spot. I think it is very key to the different operations that we do here because the greater the awareness of the destination, more people are aware of Belize as a possible option for vacationing then that means that we are a little bit more in their minds and so Belize becomes a realistic possibility for them to vacation. When it comes to the tourism industry we look at the support of the private sector and the public sector and what happen is that it was agreed that there had to be greater emphasis on the marketing of the destination."

Over the past ten years, international marketing for the country was being done by Fliss, Clark and Pope. The Belize Hotel Association also took the opportunity to introduce the Belize Hotel Guide for 2008/2009. Copies of the guide will be distributed to tourism stakeholders and marketing agencies in country and internationally.

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