Dear Tourism Industry partners

Greetings from the Belize Tourism Board,

This has been a busy month both at home and abroad as we strengthen relationships with international partners, celebrate the bounty of our natural resources as well as the creativity of our culinary personnel. Following are a few of the highlights in the month of June.

• Our congratulations to the winners of the 8th Annual Taste of Belize competition and a great big thank you to all visitors who spent the evening with us. Our winners have kindly shared their recipes on our website Tasteofbelize.com and we invite you to try them.
• The Placencia and Caye Caulker Lobsterfests were both successful in spite of the unusually rainy month of June and the inconvenience of the Sittee River bridge washing away not once but twice! Some new and delicious ways to prepare lobster were definitely showcased!
• While attending the Caribbean Tourism Summit in Washington we took the opportunity to meet with the International Development Bank to further clarify the projects we have proposed for funding and trust that both sets of meetings will yield positive results in the coming months.
• In response to the industry’s request for fiscal incentives we will shortly be releasing the results of the recent industry survey on recommended activities to be legislated in an effort to encourage further investment in the Belize tourism product.
• Of course, ongoing marketing efforts are the lifeblood of the tourism industry and we are very excited about our joint BTIA/BTB training activities with travel agents and the online courses we are developing especially for the travel trade. These activities are an excellent precursors to the upcoming BETEX 08 which we hope you will all actively participate in.
• Our Summer In Belize promotions are going well with specials sent in by over 60 private sector participants. These are being promoted on niche travel sites on the Internet.

We trust that you are working diligently on the marketing of your services during these quieter months while of course, catching up on renovations, repairs and upgrades to be ready for the 2008/2009 high season. As always we welcome your feedback via the BTB’s online office at Belizetourism.org; email, telephone or in person at our offices at # 64 Regent St. in Belize City.

With friendship,
Tracy Panton
Director of Tourism