Master Plan and new logo for B.T.B.

The Belize Tourism Board held its industry presentation this morning at La Isla Bonita. The Board was out in full force and the report on the state of the industry was glowing with arrivals on an upward trend. A master plan for the next two years was unveiled and so was a new logo: Belize: Discover how to Be to replace the well known Mother’s Nature’s Best Kept Secret. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting

It’s been a big year for tourism; arrivals are up and the Belize Tourism Board had a laundry list of achievements to boast at today’s twelfth annual Industry Presentation. Minister Manuel Heredia looked at the arrival stats, which proved impressive on an international scale.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism

Manuel Heredia Jr.

“The industry has seen an increase of over ten percent in overnight tourist arrivals in 2012, compared to 2011. To put this into perspective, the world Tourism and Travel Council indicated last year that there was only a two point seven percent increase in tourist arrivals globally in 2012, compared to last year. This, ladies and gentlemen, signifies that Belize’s performance has been extraordinary and establishes us a truly a major contender in our region’s tourism market.  The international air carriers that service Belize indicated that between December fifteenth, 2012 and January fifteenth 2013, the peak of our season, all their seats have been sold out. The PGIA has reported a sixteen percent increase in visitors’ arrival in 2012 compared to 2011.”

Another significant accomplishment was the approval on October thirtieth, 2012, of the first National Sustainable Tourism Master Plan; the road map for further development of the industry through 2030.

Manuel Heredia Junior

“My ministry has already began to undertake many of the recommendations of the master plan through technical and financial support from the sustainable tourism program, the Belize Tourism Board is at the moment developing the first ever hotel and tour operator classification system to incentivize and enhance quality of both the sectors. The B.T.B. is installing a tourism information database system to improve the management of the industry performance indication, also in conjunction with NICH, the stewardship of a cultural tourism program.”

Plans and statistics aside, tangible results of the past year can be seen in Belize City, San Ignacio, Placencia and San Pedro.  Director of tourism, Laura Esquivel-Frampton says there’s more to come with the recent approval of a four million dollars Rural Development Program, being funded by the European Union.

Laura Esquivel-Frampton

Laura Esquivel-Frampton, Director of Tourism

“The Cayo welcome center is now completed, in fact we had day two of our Taste of Belize there. We’ve begun construction and we’re almost going to finish construction in the Fort George Tourism zone Area and of course we have the Saca Chispas project here in San Pedro and the Placencia Pier project in Placencia. I think that those are huge visible accomplishments through the efforts of the Sustainable Tourism Program with the Belize Tourism board of course. The program will be focusing on nine archaeological sites. We’re working along with NICH; they are a great partner in this project. We will be looking at the health and safety standards at National Parks in the country, developing those standards but we will also engage in infrastructural work at Lamanai, Altun Ha, Barton Creek, Xunantunich, Actun Tunichil Mucnal or ATM Caves, Nohoch Che’en or Caves Branch Caves, Nim Li Punit, Lubantuun and the blue Creek Caves in Toledo.”

That project will also include a community tour guide course to train guides living adjacent to sites. The highlight of today’s presentation, however, was the unveiling of the revamped Belize and B.T.B. logos.

Alyssa Carnegie

Alyssa Carnegie, Director of Marketing, B.T.B.

“The new look is something that we’re really proud of and we really did a lot of work and research into the formulation of it. The font is not a font that you’ll find anywhere else; it’s unique to Belize, the colors of course are representative of Belize. Even the shapes of the fonts and the toucan is more circular because we were looking at what are some of the shapes that really ring through and resonate with Belize as a culture, as a people, as a country that we have to offer. The colors are all really representative of different products that we have to offer in Belize; looking at all the wildlife, the green, looking at the blues and the greens from the sea and the reef and the beach and all of that. Yellows and reds that speak towards the sun, that speak towards even some of the cultural components like the Mayan wear that they use for the deer dance, some of the Mestizo components, even looking at some of the yellows from the Garifuna wear. So we really made sure that this really served as an umbrella brand and it does represent Belize way through to its DNA.”

The new look is expected to better position and market Belize internationally as a premier destination, retiring the slogan “Mother Nature’s Best Kept Secret” after twenty-six years.

Laura Esquivel-Frampton

“We can never rest on our laurels; we can never think that we’ve arrived and we’ve gotten there. We have to keep changing ourselves relevant; changing it up and ensuring that we are standing out in the crowd. We know we have a lot of competition and everything that we’re doing we have to ensure that we are doing the maximum awareness. But the word sustainable is very important in our master plan, we need to ensure that it’s a tourism product that will benefit the locals.”

The logos are a glimpse of what will come of a newly formed partnership with the international marketing firm, Olson. A five year strategic marketing plan will also follow, looking at new markets in South and Central America. Delahnie Bain for News Five.

Total tourism revenues for 2012 have not yet been available but it makes up between twenty-one and twenty-two percent of GDP. Arrival numbers for the fourth quarter are also still being tallied, but it is said to have been a record breaking three months.