Belize showcased at Travel Mart Latin America

The Belize Tourism Board showed their presence at the "32^nd Annual Travel-Mart Latin America 2008" which was held in Quito, Ecuador from September 10^th - 12^th, 2008 at the newly renovated Centro de Exposiciones Quito. This year's trade show set an ultimate high in attendance and business appointment records.

The event was attended by over 1,000 travel industry delegates from forty-three countries; over 350 tour-operator buyers and travel industry journalists and 650 Latin America suppliers who participated during the three-day event.

This tourism business development event was inaugurated in 1978 and returned to Ecuador for the fifth time after holding last year's event in Cartagena, Colombia. A total of 7,756 business appointments were pre-scheduled for this year's event in Ecuador. Pre-scheduled appointments gave buyers and suppliers the opportunity to make appointments in advance, thereby managing and scheduling their time, leaving several opportunities to arrange additional appointments during the business sessions.

During the one-on-one scheduling sessions, the Belize Tourism Board met with over forty tour-operators and wholesalers from Europe, Canada and the United States. Buyers who met with the Belize Tourism Board were interested in — general information on Belize, "What's New" in Belize, tour-operator contacts and co-op advertising opportunities in trade magazines. Representatives from the Belize Tourism Board also had the opportunity to follow-up with tour-operators who are already selling Belize and are interested in learning about the new developments so as to increase their sales offerings for Belize.

Participating members to this event included the Belize Hotel Association (BHA), Ka'ana Boutique Resort, and Hidden Valley Inn. Representing the Belize Tourism Board were Lorena Martinez and Mrs. Mariam Roberson.