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#489339 04/11/14 05:04 AM
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BETEX, the largest tourism show organized and promoted by the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) will be held next month in Belize City from May 7-12, 2014. According to Herbert Haylock, President of the BTIA, the first BETEX event was organized in 1996 and since then has taken place every two years attracting more than 350 local and international tourism professionals and press representatives.

The travel show is a business to business event that showcases Belize's travel destinations, hotels, tour operators and other tourism service providers.

"It is an exclusive opportunity for international travel resellers (trade visitors) to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business with local travel suppliers (exhibitors), learn more about Belize, and experience the destination first-hand," says Mr Haylock, the BTIA President.

Opened only to registered participants, BETEX welcomes travel industry professionals with direct influence over purchasing decisions such as tour operators, wholesalers, travel agents, group travel organizers, corporate travel buyers, event planners, conference organizers, and online travel companies and airlines.

BETEX is an initiative of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), Belize's leading national private sector tourism association. BTIA represents a unified voice which advocated for issues that benefit its members, influences tourism policy, legislation and marketing for the sustainable development of the industry and improved quality of the visitor experience.

To learn more about the travel show, please visit the website http://www.betex.bz or contact the show organizers at [email protected].

Written by Larry Waight

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Belize Tourism Expo (BETEX) is Next Week

The Belize Tourism Expo (BETEX) which is organized by the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) is scheduled to commence next week from May 7-9 2014 at the Princess Hotel in Belize City.

BETEX is a business-to-business event that showcases Belize's travel destinations, hotels, tour operators, and other tourism service providers and attracts more than 350 local and international tourism professionals and press representatives.

The event is an exclusive opportunity for international traveler resellers to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business with local travel suppliers and to learn more about Belize and experience the destination first hand.

BETEX was first organized in 1996 and since then it has been held every two years in Belize. The last expo was held in 2012 and businesses from around Belize that were present were: The Lodge at Big Falls, Hatchet Caye Resort, Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort, Programme for Belize, San Ignacio Resort and Cahal Pech Village Resort to mention a few.

This year, the opening night of the event is scheduled for Wednesday May 7th at the Princess Hotel and Casino.

As Belize's leading national private sector tourism association, the BTIA represents a unified voice and advocates for issues that benefit its members. The organization also influences tourism policy, legislation and marketing for the sustainable development of the industry and improved quality of the visitor experience.

To learn more about the travel show, please visit the website http://www.betex.bz or contact the show organizers at [email protected].

Patrick Jones


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Post Tour at Ka'ana Boutique Resort - picture courtesy of Joanna Evans and BETEX facebook page

Belize Tourism Expo is fast aproaching

This years event runs from from May 7-9 2014 and will take place at the Princess Hotel and Casino in Belize City.

BETEX is a is a business oriented travel industry trade show featuring information on Belize travel destinations, accommodations, tour companies, and other tourism service providers. The Belize Tourism Expo provides an exclusive meet and greet opportunity for international traveler resellers to network and conduct business with local Belize travel suppliers. It also allows for them to learn more about the country and experience what this popular travel destination is like first hand in order to better help people when they are selling Belize vacation packages.

The first two days registered agents and exhibitors will mix and mingle participating in workshops, cultural events and receptions. Optional 3 night post FAM tours with site inspections are also available. Pricing is: US$199 for 2 nights and travel trade show or US$399 with additional post FAM Tour. Visit BETEX website to register or get more information on the 3 great post tour itineraries and Belize Travel.

A little bit of show history: The Belize Tourism Expo (BETEX) is an initiative of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), Belize's leading national private sector tourism association. BTIA represents a unified voice, and advocates for issues that benefit its members. BTIA also influences tourism policy, legislation and marketing for the sustainable development of the industry and improved quality of the visitor experience. BETEX was first organized in 1996 and takes place biennially, attracting approximately 300 - 350 local and international tourism professionals and press representatives.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see LOTS more photos on Tacogirl's blog!


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Betex, Belize's Tourism Expo, starts tomorrow, and ends Friday. Many Cayo businesses will be attending the BTIA organized event, which will, take place in Belize City. You can find out more at their website: http://www.betex.bz/

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Belize prepares for its biggest international tourism trade fair

BETEX which is the largest tourism expo in the Belize and is organized by the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) is scheduled to commence tomorrow May 8, 2014 at the Princess Hotel in Belize City.

The Expo is a business-to-business event that showcases Belize's travel destinations, hotels, tour operators, and other tourism service providers and attracts more than 350 local and international tourism professionals and press representatives.

The event is an exclusive opportunity for international traveler resellers to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business with local travel suppliers and to learn more about Belize and experience the destination first hand.

First organized in 1996, BETEX is held every two years and the last expo was in 2012 and businesses from around Belize that were present were: Chabil Mar, Hatchet Caye Resort, Ka'ana Boutique Resort, Laru Beya Resort & Villas, San Ignacio Resort, Portofino Beach Resort and Cahal Pech Village Resort to mention a few.

This year, the opening night of the event is scheduled for Wednesday May 7th at the Princess Hotel and Casino.

As Belize's leading national private sector tourism association, the BTIA represents a unified voice and advocates for issues that benefit its members. The organization also influences tourism policy, legislation and marketing for the sustainable development of the industry and improved quality of the visitor experience.

Patrick Jones


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BETEX Shows Off the Best In Tourism

Today, the Belize Tourism Industry Association held the first day of their 2014 Belize Tourism Expo at the Princess Ramada Hotel in Belize City.

The expo comes around every 2 years, and brings stakeholders in the industry in location to promote their tourism products. 7News stopped in to see what this year's participants brought to the showcase. The President of the Association explained its importance:

Herbert Haylock - President, Belize Tourism Industry Association
"It's the Belize Tourism Expo, it's the 2014 event. We do this event every two years, so the last event was in 2012 and then part of that was in 2010. The event is really one that's geared towards getting again the BTIA membership in particular because it's for that particular emphasis and purpose for the association to be able to have those members come to the floor like this at this particular show and offer and present what they have to sell to again, incoming agents and wholesalers who are here basically to do business. So what is going on behind me on the floor is you have business taking place where agents and wholesalers are meeting with particular properties and talking about what they have to offer and how they can be incorporated particularly into those agents and wholesalers itineraries and what they sell and sell onto their clients and customers."

Daniel Ortiz
"Tell us about some of the items that the different businesses have on display for those passing through?"

Herbert Haylock - President, Belize Tourism Industry Association
"Again you have properties represented from all different parts of the country; from San Pedro, Placencia, Cayo, Orange Walk as well, Caye Caulker, Toledo - you have various properties represented. Essentially they are here today to do the very same thing I mentioned which is to talk one on one in terms of business and sell what they have to offer."

The Expo included a training session this afternoon, which continues until tomorrow afternoon.

Channel 7


B.T.I.A. holds its biennial tourism expo

Tourism stakeholders are meeting for the rest of this week in their expo known as BETEX. It is one of the major events hosted by the Belize Tourism Industry Association and this year, there are new and familiar faces. BETEX provides immense opportunities to those in the market to show what individual operators have to offer to lure visitors to the Jewel. Duane Moody was at the Ramada Belize City Princess this morning when the business sessions kicked off.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The Belize Tourism Expo (BETEX) is organized biennially by the Belize Tourism Industry Association; it affords over three hundred and fifty members an opportunity to showcase the adventurous opportunities and luxurious getaways for tourists and international and local booking agencies. It started back in the mid-1990s.

Herbert Haylock, President, B.T.I.A.

Herbert Haylock

"This session that we are at today and tomorrow morning, business sessions, one on one meetings that are going to be designed for the purpose; business is being done. We are talking about future seasons, trying to establish packages, looking at that relationship and solidifying that relations and that is the goal ultimately of this particular event. Apart from that, it is an opportunity where Belize as a country has to showcase all that it has to offer through the properties that are participating today and through the others that have offered or are participating on the post tour end because when we are done with business between today and tomorrow, one of the other part the event is that the participants who come in, the visitors are going to go out to a number of these properties for site inspections and tours in the various destinations and locations around the country. So we are talking business today and real time in terms of business."

BETEX was officially opened on Tuesday night with a gala event, but between today and on Friday, it will be all business. The best in the industry set up booths in the King's Room of the Ramada Belize City Princess. From various travel operators, hotels and resorts, tour operators, and other attractive, adventure-based organizations�there was something for everyone. And information on these places was readily available for those in attendance.

Marcella Williams

Marcella Williams, Revenue Manager, Maya Island Air

"We've been absent from the show for a while, but this year, we decided to come and let everybody know what we have to offer. We offer many scheduled flights around the country. We offer chartered flights and we have three exciting tours that we are showing on these videos. So we are gearing up and chancing our brand and changing our image."

Marc Dibrita, Manager, Chan Chich Lodge

"We have a beautiful location straddling Orange Walk and the Cayo District. We sit on thirty thousand acres of protected private property that's ours that is part of an even wider protected area of Belize, really one of the special aspects is providing that wildlife corridor�great chance of seeing a jaguar or a margay when you're visiting Chan Chich really one of the most special things that people visit us for is for the birding, the wildlife and the nature is just a beautiful aspect of this beautiful part of our country here."

Duane Moody

"Tell us about some of the services that you have, I know you guys have this nocturnal walk or something like that."

Marc Dibritra

Marc Dibrita

"Yeah we do night walks and night drives so people get to go out and see the some of the nocturnal birds and snakes and spiders and stuff like that, so some of the scary stuff but as long as you stay high up in the track you will be safe. Our tour guides they are absolutely second to none, between four guides and eighty years of experience right at Chan Chich Lodge."

Duane Moody

"Karina Chukka here at the Tourism Expo�couldn't happen without you guys."

Karina Cunil

Karina Cunil, Marketing Officer, Chukka

"Of course you now we always say it is time to play and we love to offer the guests that experience to let loose and enjoy what this beautiful country have to offer and what better way to that than at BETEX. You know the trade partners and the suppliers work hard to build the country to where it is, to highlight that and to let everybody know that the wholesalers and the travel agents look forward to it every two years so that's what we are here doing again."

Duane Moody

"Now of course Chukka, tell us about what you guys have to offer with your amazing tours that you have."

Karina Cunil

"Well as I mentioned Chukka is doing soft adventure tours, we are doing our zip lining and cave tubing which you have experienced and you know we just love to show that to everybody. We have our crystal caves which is one of our more amazing caves and the opportunity to just be am always amazed that this is right here in our backyard and we have people who come in then you show them that it is just amazing. It is an amazing feeling."

Patricia Ramirez

2012 Tour Operator of the year, Splash Dive Center, out of Placencia was also present this year at the event.

Patricia Ramirez, Owner, Splash Dive Center

"The reason for us being here is to be able to meet new travel agents and make them try to bring their customers to Belize and try to show them the best experience ever. �We offer from scuba diving, snorkeling, all the inland tours and scuba instructions. We use to sell mostly activities only in Placencia, but we now offer all over Belize. So anywhere where our customers want to go, we try to give them the best experience."

Also throwing a little fun into the tourism expo was SMART. Asuscena Reyes spoke of the offers for tourists and the stakeholders.

Asuscena Reyes

Asuscena Reyes, Sales Manager, SMART Belize City South Side

"We want to make sure all these resorts, all visitors have an opportunity to get affordable communications in Belize. We not only do phone services we also do data and data on the go which means then even people just visiting can purchase a mifi or a dongle and have data on the go while visiting for a month or a week or even a year so that is basically it, communication, advertising our good pricing, we also have fixed telephone lines, we have anything for businesses or even just for persons on the go."

According to President of B.T.I.A., Herbert Haylock, the association ensures that its members provide top quality experiences that are second class to none in the region. And over the years, this has added to the numbers in overnight tourists to the Jewel as well as the extension of the high season.

Herbert Haylock

"It's been a joint effort across all different areas from the regulatory end with the efforts that the B.T.B. does, but you do have to give a lot of emphasis and credit to the other players in the industry; direct members not only of B.T.I.A. but within the wider industry that take the opportunity to travel to these events to market, to promote not only their properties but by extension the country Belize. So that happens, it is being done on a consistent basis by everybody and I think it is a collective effort. As a result of all of that that has ended up in some of the arrival increase that we have seeing. Coupled with that, I think the information about Belize in terms of the fact that we are here, it's a really unique destination, authentic attractions that we have to offer at the end of the day; that is catching on and I think people have begun to realize that."

Channel 5


Belize's tourism industry has expanded over the years and with encouraging tourist arrival figures, and those taking part in the Belize Tourism Expo (BETEX), which opened Wednesday night in Belize City, feel that the industry is poised for much greater things to come.

BETEX, a trade show that is held every two years since 1996, offers those in the tourism industry the opportunity to market their products and services. It provides an opportunity for wholesalers, agents, travel media to visit Belize en masse to discuss with local tourism service providers what they have to offer.

The trade aspect of the show ends on Friday afternoon and for the remainder of the weekend the visitors will go on site inspections of the tourism destinations.

While the event has over the years expanded to include more of the products and services on the Belizean market, Herbert Haylock, the president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association, says that there are still a few loopholes that need to be plugged.

These include shortcomings in infrastructure and space issues at the country's only international airport. Another area where he sees room for improvement is in the availability of floor space for such an event. With more space, Haylock feels that even more tourism businesses can tap into a broader scope of trade with other countries and perhaps even include regional countries in the event as is the case in other countries.

"The show must get bigger�and be like a one-stop where everybody wants to be a part of."

Belize has done well, Haylock said, in consistency on quality of product and in keeping our tourism product fresh and this has made Belize's tourism thrive.

The economic climate, despite what it has been on other sectors, has not negatively impacted tourism, according to Haylock. On the contrary, and as evidenced by statistics provided by the Belize Tourism Board, tourism arrivals to Belize continue to increase each year. He added that the traditional "end of season" now extends beyond the Easter week, says Haylock, and in 2013, our information is that tourist arrivals numbered 294,000.

The Reporter


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Scoop is on the beat�.

BETEX Trade Exposition in Belize City Brings in Travel Pros, Press & Me from Around The World
After a bit of work, I secured a press pass to the large Travel Expo that is held each year by the BTIA (Belize Tourism Industry Association) to�well�sell Belize. To present the country to visiting travel agents, wholesalers and consolidators (I'm still not exactly sure what those last two are)�to attract visitors to our country.

The event was (and is still being) held in the Princess Hotel and Casino which has actually been very recently purchased/repurchased by the Ramada chain. It's now the Ramada Belize City Princess.

The room was filled with booths from hotels, the local airlines and, a bit strangely, the cell phone companies.

Lots of freebies for the visiting travel agents from water bottles to shot glasses with rum punch to bags. Lots of bags.


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as is Tacogirl!

Celebrating Kim Simplis Barrow in Harper's Bazaar and enjoying BETEX
The Belize Tourism Expo opening night Party at the Elite room was lots of fun, we enjoyed meeting new people, appetizers, entertainment speeches and dancing. One of the highlights of the evening was celebrating Kim Simplis Barrow's recent photo shoot Belize in the May June Issue of Harper's Bazaar Interiors. The magazine features an eleven page spread showcasing beautiful Belize and signed framed copies of the cover were given out to businesses who helped make it possible.

The magazine photo shoot was a 5 day event with fashion designer Joris Hendrik and make-up artist Vanessa Awe on hand to make it picture perfect. They traveled around the Country and featured the following premier places, Victoria House, El Secreto, Cayo Espanto, Turtle Inn, Silk Cayes & Splash Dive Center and Lamanai. To see more pics of the magazine spread visit San Pedro Sun newspaper article Kim Simplis Barrow promotes Belize in Harper's Bazaar Interiors.

Belize Tourism Expo 2014 opening night party


Belize Tourism Expo BETEX Reflects Eco-Tourism Growth

This year's Belize Tourism Expo, BETEX 2014, held May 7 to 12, highlighted the little country's increasing range of tourism options and confirms Belize's maturity as a world class travel destination, according the owners of the Lodge at Chaa Creek.


"Compared to the first expo, BETEX 2014 reflects how far Belize has come in terms of sophistication, service delivery, infrastructure and continuous improvement," co-founder and GM Lucy Fleming said from the Chaa Creek display at the Princess Ramada Hotel in Belize City.

"For to those of us who have been involved with the evolution of Belize's eco-tourism industry from its very beginnings, it's very gratifying to see how quickly it's grown without compromising the environmental and social obligations we identified early on," she added.

BETEX is an initiative of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), Belize's main private sector tourism association. Ms Fleming, as past president of the association, said the cooperation between the private sector and government of Belize has been a key factor in Belize's rapid rise as a desirable travel destination.

"In the early days, we were all working on unfamiliar ground, as Belize had just become independent in 1981 and we were well under the radar as a tourism destination, even though we have so much to offer. So the tagline, 'Mother Nature's Best Kept Secret,' was developed and we used a variety of low cost strategies to market ourselves," Ms Fleming said, citing the rise of social media as a major component in Belize's success.


"Since we were the new kid on the block and did not have the sort of marketing budgets, name recognition and clout that our competitors did, we had to do things differently.

"One of our real strengths was word of mouth. When people came to Belize, they invariably loved it, and then with the rise of social media, the word got out, and suddenly we were seeing celebrities, travel professionals and other trend setters, if you will, spreading the word," she explained.

Only some 170 miles (274 km) long by 68 miles (109 km) wide, Belize nonetheless contains a wide variety of geographical features and natural attractions, including the world's second largest barrier reef protecting hundreds of small islands known as cayes, the world's largest atolls, vast tracts of protected wilderness, and thousands of remnants of Belize's ancient Maya civilisation such as the huge metropolis of Caracol, the well preserved temples of Xunantunich and Altun Ha and many other sites.

Ms Fleming said the nascent tourism industry's main task was to let the world know what Belize had to offer, and to then build training opportunities and an infrastructure to ensure the level of quality travellers were coming to expect.

"When you consider how grass-roots everything was, and to a certain extent still is, the growth we've seen is phenomenal. The fact that Belizeans are primarily English speaking and naturally warm and friendly certainly helped, as did the stunning natural environment, but the learning curve was very steep in the early days. When you walk through this year BETEX you can see how far the level of professionalism has risen over the years," she said.

First organised in 1996, BETEX is held every two years, with this year's event attracting some 350 local and international tourism professionals. It is an opportunity for travel agents and wholesalers to meet with Belizean resort and hotel owners and tourism stakeholders and experience Belize firsthand, Ms Fleming said.

BTIA President Herbert Haylock said that this year's BETEX had a whole-of-Belize focus. "You have properties represented from all different parts of the country; from San Pedro, Placencia, Cayo, Orange Walk as well, Caye Caulker, Toledo� Essentially they are here today to� talk one on one in terms of business and sell what they have to offer," he said.


Ms Fleming added that while the focus of BETEX was business, in true Belizean style the Expo was also designed to be fun and relaxing for the participants and overseas guests.

"You see people really enjoying themselves here. It wouldn't be a true Belizean event otherwise," she said.

BETEX 2014 runs from May 7 to 12, and further information can be found on the BTIA's Facebook page.

(Photos courtesy of our friend Rebecca over at The San Pedro Scoop)

Chaa Creek blog


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Lots of Photos�

Cayo Represented at BETEX
Cayo was well represented at BETEX 2014. Rumors Resort, Midas Resort, Ka'ana, CAT, Maya Mountain Lodge, Windy Hill, Cahal Pech Resort, and many other Cayo lodges and tour operators had displays set up to exchange information.

Preparation for BETEX
Here are pictures that show how much went into setting up the BETEX conference.



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