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Belize Represented at Signing of Agreement to Establish a Latin American Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination between Tourism Ministers of Countries Receiving Cruise Lines

Belize City, Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Mr. Mike Singh, CEO of the Ministry of Tourism & Civil Aviation, represented the Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. in Mexico City last week at a meeting of the Ministers of the Mundo Maya Accord and participated in the signing of an agreement to establish a Latin American mechanism for consultation and coordination between cruise lines and neighboring countries. The agreement aims at improving the conditions of the cruise industry and exploiting the resources that are generated for direct benefit to local communities.

Mr. Singh was accompanied by Mike Bejos of the Belize Embassy in Mexico and attended a series of meetings including one with Lic. Mario de la Vega Granjales, the general manager of FONATUR. FONATUR is the Tourism Development Fund established in 1974 with responsibility for the development of a major tourism destination in Mexico. At the meeting FONATUR agreed to provide technical assistance and planning support to the Ministry of Tourism in Belize in the development of its proposed Belize Tourism Development Trust. A Memorandum of Cooperation will be drafted with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Belize in Mexico to formally establish the relationship between FONATUR and the Ministry of Tourism.

The CEO, accompanied by Ambassador Urbina, also attended the general meeting of the Mundo Maya Accord. At this meeting the pro-tem president of Mundo Maya, Secretario Rodolfo Torres, outlined the various initiatives of Mundo Maya over the past year. The Minister of Tourism of Honduras and past president of Mundo Maya, Lic. Ricardo Martinez, gave a brief history of the Accord and called for a return to the original goals of Mundo Maya by all countries. At this meeting, the presidency of Mundo Maya was transferred to Guatemala.

For more information on the developments and events in Belize tourism industry, please contact the Marketing Department at the Belize Tourism Board at (501)-227-2420, via e-mail: info@travelbelize.org or visit us at our website TravelBelize.org.