There are MAJOR problems with the BTB's network of sites, they are doing an "upgrade" that may kill 15 years of hard work for search engine placement, and many many Belizean websites.

I fear they are incompetent, and do not know what they destroy.

Here is just a small list of problems one can check yourself:

1. All major Belize websites are no longer functioning. Go to anyone and see. This includes:

http://www.toucantrail.com
http://www.toucantrailbelize.com
http://www.belizemediacenter.org
http://www.belizetraveltrade.org
http://www.belizetourism.org
http://www.tasteofbelize.com
http://www.belizeemergency.net
http://www.septembercelebrations.com
http://www.belizemaya2012.com

2. The main BTB website, Travelbelize.org is severly degraded - check out the marina in the Cockscomb (http://travelbelize.org/attractions/rainforest-inland/cockscomb-basin-wildlife-sanctuary-2.html) and pictures of our wonderful barrier reef.

3. Toucan Trail use to have top ranking in Google for "budget hotels in Belize". Check for it now. There are over 100 properties that only presence online is the Toucan Trail, and the BTB is ignoring the fact that their web presence is gone. Do a search on "Ruthies cabanas Dangriga" and see what happens.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For the life of me, I can't understand how no one has seen this, it has been a full week since it happened and the BTB sends out a message about how excited they are about upgrading their web presence. They may be upgrading it, but they are letting 15 years of search engine placement go in a week. They are letting a network that has been built on lots and lots of money and time invested, go to waste, but no one else seems to understand what they are destroying. There is no way any one competent would allow sites to go dark while upgrading.

Marty

Fear not Marty, as I have it from reliable sources that the whole "internet thing" is but a passing fad. And who really uses Google anyways???

yeah, no one really uses google :>

It is unfortunate and will affect all of us. There are mostly PR people in the BTB now, and they are relying on a US PR firm, and their director of marketing is from that US PR firm believe it or not.

travelbelize.org has slowed to a crawl.

and slowness is only one of their problems:

1. Check out the beautiful coral reef images - http://travelbelize.org/attractions/attractions/island-marine.html
2. Check out the marina in the Cockscomb Basin - http://travelbelize.org/attractions/rainforest-inland/cockscomb-basin-wildlife-sanctuary-2.html
3. Entertainment? - http://travelbelize.org/activities/entertainment/entertainment.html
4. Accommodations Directory? - http://travelbelize.org/accommodations/accommodations/accommodations.html

THE ENTIRE ACCOMODATIONS AREA IS KAPUT????????

what? I use Google. Don't you wish everybody did?

just being satirical on the "no one uses google" comment....

HOLY F#@!

Check out the beautiful beach pictured at:
http://travelbelize.org/activities/activities/reef-beach.html nice crumbling cement seawall.

And WHO is writing this??? "Chinese restaurants are the most prevalent in the country but that is not your only option." WHAT THE????

You are 110% correct Marty that this IS criminal.

This would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. Lilly pads at South Water Caye?

http://travelbelize.org/attractions/island-marine/south-water-caye-marine-reserve-2.html

Riverine forest and snail kite at Laughingbird Caye?

http://travelbelize.org/attractions/island-marine/laughing-bird-caye-national-park-2.html

Who is the online marketing partner for BTB?

Where is the RFP (Request For Proposal)? What was the process to choose one? I would have been interested in bidding.

Regardless, why would they allow the network to go dark?

Maybe they will make a great new website, but there is no reason to let the network go dark.

And the biggest question, is why is there no outcry from the industry?

I'm sure they'll be an outcry now... I for one just sent a note to BVK (http://bvk.com) who do all the PR for BTB/BZE...

I mean ALL the pics on the BTB's site look like they're FPO as someone re-codes the thing. If it were a joke it'd be funny. The fact that it's not (a joke) is tragic.

So in the history of ALL the "Scuba" related photos that have been taken in Belize, the BTB REALLY feels that the two pictured here BEST capture what diving in Belize is all about???

http://travelbelize.org/activities/reef-beach/scuba-diving-2.html

WTF?????!!!!!

heckofa gear rack on that page jeff



gorgeous huh? beats the heck out of lookin at some dadgum fish.

slower than molasses too.. plus they link to this belizedev.com site and so all the long held SEO placement spots for the pages will vanish. and the new urls will so into the google database as brand new pages. thus not with the same ranking. text is changing too, so long indexed text will also vanish.

belizedev.com, which everything forwards to is owned by bvk. You can check that in whois.godaddy.com

Go to
http://www.belizedev.com/travelbelize/
http://www.belizedev.com/belizetourism/
http://www.belizedev.com/toucantrail/
etc.

and you will see all the travelbelize.com sites.

the changeover is being done in a very SEO UNFRIENDLY way.

...wow the "Beach Life" photos are spectacular!!!!

http://travelbelize.org/activities/reef-beach/beach-life-2.html

I am going to stop looking at the BTB's site now less this just become too depressing.

contact the BTB and news sources...
Mainly need to contact the BTB...

Belize Tourist Board, guy in charge of the website is one Maynor Larrieu, call BTB this afternoon (he was in a meeting this morning).

BELIZE TOURISM BOARD
P.O. Box 325
64 Regent Street
Belize City, Belize
Tel: 011-501-227-2420
Fax: 011-501-227-2423
Toll free: 1-800-624-0686
Email: info@travelbelize.org
Website: http://www.travelbelize.org

killer fishing page
http://travelbelize.org/activities/reef-beach/fishing-2.html

NO PICTURES

same with the sailing page

Thanks Marty for bringing this to our attention. I don't normally go out and look at those sites....(which I would imagine is true for most business owners here). Sending my note now, and asking for an explanation!

from a friend...

Word is that the BTB broke their contract with Tony Rath and can't use his pics anymore, so they have no photos...

unreal they would [#%!] over Tony after all he has done.

His pictures and websites have inspired a generation, MYSELF INCLUDED.

Is this whole thing maybe tied into the new Destination Belize campaign being done through IdeaLabs? Still doesn't make sense to kill so many websites but a revamp is definitely needed.

several folks have been asked by the BTB in the last week for photos, " emergency" requests

did you see the Moorings type cats moored at cockscomb?

It looks like no element of the Belize tourism machine is immune to the 'shooting themselves in the foot' scenario. Curious to see how Junior handles this, or if he is even aware of what has happened.

This is awesome copywriting:

"Street-side cafes serve local fare offer people-watching opportunities and hotels and restaurants if the more-visited tourist areas offer an assortment of local gourmet and epicurean delights."

It would be nice if the pictures on the Caulker page, were actually of Caye Caulker and not San Pedro.

BTB response


Our less frequently used sites, listed below for your convenience, will
remain under construction throughout the rest of 2011.

* ToucanTrail.com
* BelizeMediaCenter.org
* BelizeTravelTrade.org
* SeptemberCelebrations.com
* BelizeMaya2012.com
* TasteOfBelize.com
* BelizeEmergency.net

Enhancements of the BTB's websites are both positive and essential
undertakings, and we are confident that this investment is in the best
interest of the Belizean tourism industry - and by extension, all Belizeans.

response from Mary Toy:

Taking down Belize Emergency Net and Toucan Trail is irresponsible. Of course Belize Emergency Net isn’t heavily trafficked. It is only needed when we have a major emergency – like a hurricane heading our way. The rest of the time, there’s no reason to look at it.

The Toucan Trail is the only Web presence most of the small hotels on the Website have, so BTB seems to be shafting them again – not paying any attention to them -- again. And, if it’s a less frequently used site, perhaps that’s the function of the marketing effort that BTB has made to give it exposure – not much – and the fact that it hasn’t been updated for two years. I refer people to the Toucan Trail site all the time when I get inquiries from people who I can’t assist because they’re very budget travelers and need to use public transportation and stay at very budget hotels. BTB put up the Toucan Trail as its major response to the issue of helping increase occupancy rates at smaller, Belizean owned hotels. They’re not even going to do that anymore? Guess the lure of cruise ship dollars is just too strong.

from a friend who works in the embassy in DC

Well, I contacted some media outlets about the BTB web mess and nobody got back to me. So it's Facebook time. I noticed Mary Toy put up a piece and I just shared it with all my contacts. I've noticed more than a few people have indicated they are complaining to BTB so it looks like the word is starting to get out.

I was looking at the sites some more and it's really a bummer. Apparently they also ended their contract with Tony Rath so all his nice shots are gone, too.

Just spoke to a long time friend who works in the BTB. I was told that changes had to be made, and that it will work out well in the long term. I trust the person completely, and I hope this can be fixed up soon.

I sure wish they would at least put the Toucan Trail back up, and I expressed that in the conversation.

more at BELIZE FORUMS

Looks like there's more than one side to this story. Here's the BTB response.

Answer from the Belize Tourism Board:

Dear Belize Tourism Industry Partner,

There are many new and exciting initiatives underway at BTB as we reposition the organization to lead Belize’s destination branding and marketing to a higher level in accordance with our goals to leverage BTB efforts in dynamic and positive ways to better serve the country’s tourism
stakeholders.

We look forward to sharing more about these initiatives with you in the weeks ahead as we launch regular updates to our industry partners and stakeholders.

Meanwhile, as we also undergo a complete review of our online presence in order to improve it over the past, I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify some misinformation that is circulating in some circles and leading to confusion about our current online status and restructuring underway.

To follow-up our March 31st mailing regarding the transition of our online assets, we’ve heard from individuals throughout Belize questioning, and in some cases accusing, the BTB of terminating the contract of our long-­time online vendor/partner -- Naturalight Productions.

The fact is, their contract expired on March 31, 2011 and they notified the BTB on March 15, 2011 they would no longer be interested in serving the BTB.

While we were very interested in exploring with them their services on an interim basis during this transition period to a new online provider, the costs of such interim services offered by Naturalight were extremely expensive: They asked for $152,327.50 per month for use of their images
currently on our websites; an additional $2,650 per month for hosting BTB’s sites, and an additional $3,750 per month for use of ownloadable images for BZ Media Centre/BZ Travel Trade websites, and a further $150 per hour for any
updates made to the sites by BTB or our industry partners.

These extremely high costs are impossible for the BTB to meet on a monthly basis. Therefore we had no choice but to seek the services of another interim online partner while we conduct our search for a new online agency to work with BTB and manage all of our online resources.

We are very encouraged and excited to now be in discussions with some of the top online service providers for destination marketing in the travel and tourism industry and I look forward to announcing our new online service provider once that process is complete.

Due to the timing of this transition, and as a result of limited accessability to the functional site architecture, the interim online agency we contracted to work with the BTB temporarily during this full online transition process had to make a digital duplicate of all of our site pages.

This process is called “scraping.” Scraping is a software technique for extracting information from websites. The site navigation and content you currently see on the interim site for TravelBelize.org are identical to the previous site from years prior.

Only we are now correcting some errors in copy brought to our attention on the old website that was managed by our previous online agency.

Unfortunately, the scraping process can’t extract the functions of the original site, so site search, hotel search and other database functions cannot be duplicated.

The good news is the BTB has been able to obtain the original site files and is now in the process of restoring many of the old websites to their original functionality.

TravelBelize.org will be functionally restored shortly. Regarding photography, when I arrived at BTB I was startled to discover that after 15 years of contracting with Naturalight, BTB did not own any of the photos in its image gallery. This is highly unusual among tourism boards in the world where it is important to own also rights to its
own image gallery in order to do its job well.

Because of the very high license fees which we had to pay every time we used a photo in our own BTB image gallery, this model of photo dependency was simply unsustainable.

Therefore, while we set up plans for new photos to be taken and seek out other high quality existing image sources, the BTB has identified high quality images of Belize that we are able to start using now and is also reaching out to the industry for any images you have that you may be willing to
share with BTB to highlight the beauty and excitement of Belize.

A usage form will be posted on the website for you to submit photos that you feel capture the wonder and beauty of our country.

All photos used will be credited on the site and returned to their owners.

I would also like to update you on the current status of all of the BTB’s websites just so you have a proper understanding of where things are now as we move forward with improving our web presence and content as part of the official launch of a new and vastly improved BTB website
under development.

• TravelBelize.org – The site has been temporarily rebuilt after the initial “scraping.” And now that we have all of the associated files, a full restoration is underway.

• BelizeTourism.org – The site has been fully restored with plans to go live by April 15, 2011.

• BelizeEmerergency.org – We will be developing an emergency page as an adjunct from our TravelBelize.Org platform which will be activated and live prior to, during and post any emergency. Please note the old domain name will be redirected to this new page.

• BelizeMaya2012.com – This site will be live again in the next few weeks and we are making sure it is fully optimized this time utilizing the key words by people searching for Maya 2012 information. We are also investing in a social media strategy that will help give a much-­‐needed lift to the implementation of all BTB initiatives for Maya 2012 and others.

• BelizeMediaCenter.org – This site will be fully restored with beautiful images of Belize that we are now in the process of compiling to replace the images we no longer have access to due to the high fees associated with their use. Please note that those of you, our industry partners, that have your own high quality photos that you may wish to
appear on the BTB website, we would be delighted to include them especially in assisting a journalist interested in specific photos we do not already have within our current limited library.

• BelizeTravelTrade.org – This site will be fully restored also with new images. Meanwhile, the travel trade team is making specific outreach to all travel trade partners to ensure they know we are happy to handle their specific needs on a one-­‐on-­‐one basis.

• SeptemberCelebrations.com – Launched in July of 2010, this site has not delivered enough traffic to meet our new and higher standards. The good news, however, is the September Celebrations Facebook page does have over 1,000 fans and continues to generate interest. We believe Facebook is where it should be for better results for all our celebration promotions moving forward.

• TasteOfBelize.com – This formerly-­designed website also does not produce the level of traffic to meet BTB’s marketing goals, therefore it will not be restored. The 2011 Taste of Belize will have an ongoing presence within the overall new website development as that is completed.

• ToucanTrail.org – This site will be fully restored in the coming weeks. However, we feel it is important to note that the site only receives a low level of visitation – on average of 1,000 unique visitors per month with some months as low as just 100 visitors. Therefore, when the site launches again, we are planning to better optimize it to increase traffic and ensure that it works more effectively in delivering higher returns for its intended online market.

In closing, and on behalf of the BTB and our Board, these are exciting times of restructuring and reorganizing at BTB as we work hard to truly ramp up BTB’s ability to deliver at a much higher level for our tourism partners and industry
stakeholders.

With change from old ways to new certainly comes challenge, but these are challenges that BTB continues to meet successfully in our steadfast aim to clarify any misinformation that may be out there while we focus on new goals and objectives.

BTB cannot be rebuilt overnight, but it can and must be rebuilt to compete in the fast evolving world of tourism marketing at the global level today.

BTB looks forward to your continued support and input as we strive to show the world our unwavering commitment to providing a world-­class experience to all travellers who visit our small country; both in person and in planning their trip via digital media.

I am very excited to share with you our new online presence – soon to come.

Thank you for your time and support.

Seleni Matus
Director of Tourism
The Belize Tourism Board

Very glad to hear that the Toucan Trail site will be functional against soon -- and that's its being given the attention it deserves. I hope BTB realizes that it also seriously needs updating.

Of course by admission BTB had a long time to make the change over and did nothing as best I can tell. The overall service given by BTB to the industry has shrunk to where it is pointless to call for information. BTB was once a rich source of info about Belize. This website fiasco is only one part of the horrible job that the upper level is doing. I would love to see an audit of the BTB as all the hotel tax is supposed to stay in the Ministry. Some very good and nice people are being made to look like fools because of the ineptitude of the Minister and we are all suffering with the result.