And while Foreign Affairs was having a SICA summit with senior regional leaders, the Belize Tourism Board also had a couple of ministers at a tourism summit. A one day event, but the agenda ran the gamut from cruise tourism to green tourism, marketing to air travel. But it's not just a talk shop. Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith today told us that from this summit they expect to gather useful information to plot the future course of the industry.
Hon. Godfrey Smith, Minister of Tourism
"The key areas for which we want to discuss and eventually policy; cruise, how do we balance it; environment and development, how do we increase market share; airlifts, how do we get flights, more planes coming into Belize. The idea is that we believe it is an industry, it is important examine where you are, to engage in this kind of exercise so that it can inform your policy making.
Regulation, proper regulation, proper policy intervention, is absolutely the key from a public sector standpoint to managing growth and if left unchecked, like I mentioned, it will grow on its own and perhaps in a way we don't want it to. So this is designed to inform and educate policy intervention from the public sector.
Regulation is not where we would want it to be, but bear in mind that Belize is a big destination compared to the other small islands where they go to. And as I mentioned in the statement, the idea is to create the Belize District as their sphere of operation. In fact, because of factors of distance and time, you won't find a high level of penetration of cruise visitors in Ambergris Caye, Placencia, or the greater part of the Cayo District. Time and distance do not allow it. So that what you are seeing is the natural phenomenal of Belize District emerging as the cruise target destination which is where we believe it should because of what it means in terms of employment. But yes I agree that there is definitely room for more regulation.
It is difficult to see any immediate effects coming out from conferences but what happens is that the ideas, the recommendations, trickle into the institution, if you will, and it might take some time but those who come after have the benefit of looking at the policy documents, looking at the research papers and when there is sufficient momentum built, things then kick in - things then take effect."
The summit concluded this evening. It featured participation from Allan Chastanet, St. Lucia's Minister of Tourism.
