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Posted By: Portofino Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 02:28 PM
Belize's New Brand & Marketing Agency

It's not been widely reported but for the first time in a very long while tourism arrival figures for the month of May were down. The experts say it's no cause for panic really, but there is a creeping fear that it could be the first sign of a trend. Which is why Belize tourism product and the industry's confidence in that product is in desperate need of a jump start to raise hopes about sagging arrival figures. And the Tourism Board hopes that signing on with a new marketing firm is that shot in the arm. It's no lightly made move or slight manoeuvre; it is bold, the last marketing company retained Richartz, Fliss, Clarke and Pope shepherded Belize's tourism product through the last 10 years, from 1998 to 2008. But with a new government and new realities in the travel and leisure industry, particularly in North America the BTB figured it was time for a change and they introduced that today.

http://www.7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=11925&frmsrch=1
Posted By: Cybercayecaulker.com Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 05:21 PM
No cause for panic? Well, hate to tell them this, but Caye Caulker is in a panic.
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 05:31 PM
When the BTB stops issuing reports on tourism arrivals, you know that the data isn't too positive.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: elbert Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 05:41 PM
It doesn't instill confidence in the agency when they display geographic scenes and flora and fauna in their campaign that aren't even in Belize, same problem last year. It looks cheap and thought less when the advertising people display photography taken in Mexico and the South Pacific to depict Belize.Advertisers for the resort hotels are just as guilty. Divers know the lionfish is native to the tropical Pacific region of the world, Clownfish are native to waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, Macaws don't fly around on the Beaches they live deep in the rain forest and almost everyone knows Chitzen Itza is in Mexico.
.
It shows they are either ignorant of Belize or to low budget to take real photos of the country they are supposed to be marketing.
We have a unique product and it should be shown as such.
Posted By: Cybercayecaulker.com Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 05:44 PM
I felt the winds of change September 2007, when inquiries and reservations country-wide were down, just from listening to the chatter on the net and from our own experience. And no amount of wishing on my fairy godmother could change the fact that the U.S. economy is in the toilet. What business is recession-proof? I was on Cozumel Easter week this year and it was very slow also. I have a friend in Hawaii who has told me that this has been her worst year in business. The U.S. economy affects tourism worldwide.
The BTB should change their agency every couple of years anyway, for new and innovative input, the agency will work hard to impress, and won't get lazy. Its just like changing presidents, prime ministers, and political parties every couple of years. Time for a change, I agree. Bravo to the BTB for making this bold move. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I don't see anybody crying over this decision.
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 07:21 PM
Typically the BTB changes ad/PR agencies each time the government changes, and sometimes more frequently. I've been reporting on Belize tourism for 18 years and have watched four or five agencies come and go.

I have to say all of them have been mediocre at best. Some have been barely competent. (I'm not including the new agency, with which I haven't dealt yet except to get a couple of emails from them about six weeks ago.)

I think Marty Casado here has done more to promote Belize tourism than all the BTB efforts combined.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: elbert Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 07:23 PM
amen
Posted By: Cybercayecaulker.com Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 07:38 PM
Totally agree.
Posted By: elbert Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 08:37 PM
Some one is reading minds or what?
Belize Tourism Board
64 Regent Street
Belize City
Tel: + 501-227-2420
Fax: + 501-227-2423
Website: www.travelbelize.org
E-mail: [email protected]


BVK Photo Image Invite

BVK, Belize's new Marketing & Public Relations Agency is pleased to invite members of Belize's private sector who are interested in submitting their favorite Belize photo images for possible use in the marketing and public relations initiatives.

Industry stakeholders wishing to share their images are asked to kindly have the rights to these images formally released to the BTB and BVK for inclusion in the Belize image library. All images submitted must also be of high resolution quality.
All submissions can be made through Lorena Martinez, Marketing Officer at the Belize Tourism Board at [email protected].

For more information on the developments and events in Belize's tourism industry, please contact the Marketing Department at the Belize Tourism Board at (501)-223-1913, via e-mail: [email protected] or visit us at our website www.travelbelize.org


Posted By: elbert Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 08:46 PM
My big mouth just got me committed to submit some photos. I'm going to take this seriously and enjoy creating some photography they can use.I'm renting a car and driving around Belize in Sept. Its a slow month in the diving business and a time to take time off. I'm getting a new 10megpix underwater camera Sunday and have the D-80 for above the surface.
Belize is a unique place and one of the most beautiful places in the World. I think I'll take a picture.
Posted By: reaper Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 09:51 PM
I'm sending them some freefall shots over the reef and the Blue Hole skydive photo.
Just from my own dealings with the BTB, sometimes they trip over $100 bills to make some dimes.
Posted By: reaper Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 09:55 PM
One other note of interst. It is nearly $1,000usd to fly to Belize from Los Angeles for Thanksgiving week. Airfares MUST get lower.
Posted By: AdvantageRealty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 10:36 PM
Mark Espat's BTB did wonders for tourism in Belize, put us on the map. This isn't an opinion, rather a fact.

I have total confidence in the new BTB under the leadership of Mike Sign and Gach along with the experience of Santi. Stakeholders and pioneers. Exciting times.

We all need to do our part in the promotion of the Belize product, it's OUR business to do so.
Posted By: Marty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:23 PM
love it if you guys send me copies of what you send them (pics). being the foto freak that i am.....

Gach, Santi and Mike will be real good i totally agree.

Was at a usa county fair this weekend. the photo exhibit was horrid. i am getting so used to really excellent photography from all you fine folks who send me pics that local exhibitions in the usa are looking BAAAAAD.

yeah reap fares are ugly. was just looking myself.
Posted By: AdvantageRealty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:40 PM
Marty is the man, but we all know that! How's the summer up in OR bro?
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:41 PM
Yes, under Mark Espat (Minister of Tourism from 1998 to 2004) Belize's cruise tourism really took off. Belize got 14,000 cruise daytrippers in 1998 when he first took office, and 851,000 in 2004 when he was fired by Musa (he was later brought back briefly to the cabinet in a different position).

That's a 5,300% increase in daytrippers!

Of course, overnight tourism visitation (folks who actually stay in hotels in San Pedro and elsewhere) didn't fare **quite** so well. Belize got 176,000 overnight arrivals in 1998. By the end of 2004, Belize had 231,000 arrivals, a 31% increase in six years. During the same period, overnight tourist arrivals in Costa Rica grew from 851,000 to 1,453,000, an increase of 71%.

Under Mark Espat's stewardship, overnight tourism arrival growth in Belize lagged every other country in Central America except El Salvador. It was also near the bottom of the rankings in tourism growth in the Caribbean Basin.

I'm not saying Espat did a bad job compared with other tourism ministers, but I don't see the evidence that he did "wonders" except in the area of bringing in cruise daytrippers.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: SimonB Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:45 PM
Just hope they do a better job marketing Belize than they do with their own company. Their website is amateur at best (when the links work.)
Posted By: Portofino Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:53 PM
Increasing Tourism is possible - look at Curacao:
Occupancy rate 90%
A record increase of tourists of 28% over 2007
January 2008 + 33.5%
300,000 annual tourists (Belize was 230,000) in 2007
To meet the increasing demand, they are building 4,000 extra rooms.

Originally Posted by CHATA
Tourism in Curacao keeps growing in January 2008
March 5 2008

(Willemstad, Cura�ao - March 5) Preliminary figures released by the Cura�ao Tourist Board for January 2008 show that 29.308 stopover tourists visited Cura�ao in January 2008, a 33.5% increase over the same month in 2007 while the preliminary average occupancy figures released by CHATA were at a 89.5% for January 2008 compared with 86.5% last year.
Traffic from Europe grew 7.0% from 10,717 arrivals in January 2007 to 11,463 visitors during January 2008. Much of the increase in European traffic continue to come from Holland, which showed a 7.9% increase in traffic, from 8935 visitors in January 2007 to 9639 in January 2008. Traffic also grew from other important European markets such as Belgium (11.5%) and Germany (+10%). Other European Markets that performed well were Switzerland (+44.4%), Portugal (+35.0%), Finland (+34.8%), Austria (24.0%) and Norway (16.4%). However Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom did not perform very well.

The problem with airlift continues to be a bottleneck in the simultaneous growth of the different European markets. An increase in a market shows a decrease in another market for the simple reason of seats availability on the trans-Atlantic route.


Overall traffic out of the South American markets continue to show signs of sustained growth, traffic was up for all but two major markets (Peru -20.6% and Ecuador -15.3%) charter
Visitor numbers out of Venezuela continue to positively impact our local economy and the accommodation capacities on island. Traffic grew by triple digit numbers from 1555 arrivals in 2007 to 7545 arrivals in January 2008. Traffic was also up (140%) for Brazil, (114%) for Guyana, 66% for Suriname, (33.8%) for Colombia, (10.6%) from Argentina and Rest South America also grew by (64.0%).

In general traffic from the Caribbean markets were positive with declines out of the Dominican Republic (15.3%) Trinidad & Tobago (-11.0) and Haiti (-0.7). Major Caribbean Markets performed very well, traffic grew out of Aruba (+32.7%), Barbados (+26.7%), Jamaica (9.6%) and rest Caribbean was up by (12.6%). The Puerto Rican that has been steadily declining all through 2007 remained at 67 passengers, the same total as last year.

The less favorable economic prospects that have started to emerge in the last quarter of 2007 might be impacting travel to Curacao for the North American market.
Traffic from the USA was down by 9.6% compared with January 2007 from 4205 arrivals in 2007 to 3800 in January 2008 and was also down 13.8% from Canada.

The number of intended visitor nights also increased in January 2008, by (19.2%) compared with January 2007.

The number of cruise visitors showed a small decline (0.3%) in January 2008, from 60.009 in January 2007 to 59.839 this year with the number of ships calling growing from 39 in 2007 to 43 in January 2008.

Prospects for February and March look even more positive with major conferences and holidays expected in the upcoming months. Tourism is generating an income for our island and offering more job opportunities for our community.


http://www.chata.org/about_us_news.php
Posted By: Barnacle Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/15/08 11:55 PM
mrs. barn and myself will be trying to get some good shots for the cause.
i hope someone will fix all the MANY screw-ups in the destinations mag that have been ignored for years!
Posted By: AdvantageRealty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 12:02 AM
Lan -

Can you give me a comparison of the annual budget for Costa Rica's Dept. of Tourism -vs- the BTB's of 1998-2004.

What was the annual hotel tax intake for these years? and the rate of growth.

What percentage of the arrivals at PGIA were tourists -vs- residents? Did they both increase 31% evenly.

Posted By: AdvantageRealty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 12:04 AM
What years did the Dallas, Newark, Atlanta and Charlotte flights commence?
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 01:58 AM
Chris,

No, I don't have the time to do that research. I'm sure you or one of your staff can come up with the figures, though.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: Lan Sluder/Belize First Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 02:06 AM
Delta began daily service to Belize from Atlanta in December 2004. It has since drastically cut back service. Delta also planned service from LA to BZE around 2006, but it only lasted a few weeks.

USAir began daily servie to Belize from Charlotte in November 2002. It has since drastically cut back service.

I believe Continental began a weekly flight from Newark to BZE in December 2002.

American's service from Dallas has been around for a long time, though it comes and goes. Probably started in the mid-1990s? Not sure.

--Lan Sluder
Posted By: Drifter # 7 Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 02:35 AM
You're a sentimental slob Elbert.......where did you get a name like that anyway?
Posted By: Drifter # 7 Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 02:41 AM
I don't know all the stats but I do rembember when Espat started his marketing he hired some agency from New York City (dadgum Yankees) and within days our website lit up and we had a few years of the best occupancy at my resort ever.
Posted By: elbert Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 02:46 PM
Its a third generation thing , I couldn't just dump it for love in a foreign port...

I'm creating an Account at Photobucket to put photos of Belize and will give access on request to those who have a need for Belizean Stock Photography. I'll be at Gallon Jug and Chan Chich and Orangewalk in Sept. for a while solely to shoot Belize stuff. but one person/photographer isn't going to make much of a dent in whats needed.
Posted By: AdvantageRealty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 03:44 PM
Lan -

Impressive outlook. Imagine no too long ago we had two flights a week on Salvadorian and Honduran airlines. I used to fly with both of them.

The figures in question are readily available from your friends at the BTB. They help to paint a much more positive picture. My staff is home watching cartoons, it's Saturday after all.

Perhaps those who feel they can do better should become a bit more proactive in the assistance to promote the Belize tourism product.





Posted By: Drifter # 7 Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 07:13 PM
As usual you did the right thing Elbert.

Speaking of the photos did you ever go to Google search, click on images at the top left, then search for Belize, Ambergris Caye Belize, San pedro town Belize, etc. I can't believe how many photos they have there. After the search you can also sort by image size. I don't know how they get the photos but there are some there off a couple of my websites and I didn't give them to them. I'll keep an eye on yours.
Posted By: Marty Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 08:20 PM
hey Bill, google images grabs them off all the websites it indexes for its search engine.
Posted By: Drifter # 7 Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/16/08 10:00 PM
Dadgum crooks! Who do they think they are? What's their address? I'm gonna sue'um.
Posted By: Laguna Punta Re: Belize tourism down... - 08/20/08 09:14 AM
Originally Posted by Lan Sluder/Belize First


I think Marty Casado here has done more to promote Belize tourism than all the BTB efforts combined.

--Lan Sluder
MARTY FOR PRIME MINISTER!!!!!
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