Tonight, tourism stakeholders continue to applaud the Barrow Administration for the decision to relax the safe corridor restrictions for tourists visiting Belize.
Several weeks ago, members of the Belize Tourism Industry Association began lobbying for the government to remove the tourism red tape because Belize's COVID numbers were on the rise from our own domestic behaviour, and clamping down on COVID-tested tourists wouldn't drastically change the number of cases.
In the one month since that lobbying for a a streamlined process started - the number of COVID deaths have sadly doubled - and none of it has been linked to tourist arrivals.
This evening, we got a chance to speak with two members of the BTIA about the impact this opening up could have on the recovery of the tourism industry. Here's what they told us via zoom teleconference:
John Burgos - Executive Director, BTIA "We were very pleased to see the positive response that was presented by the Prime Minister last week at his press conference. We have been requesting a more common-sense approach to be used, based on the current status of the COVID-19 in Belize. The fear, some 2 or 3 months ago, was for tourists to bring the virus, but it has happened that we were the ones that brought the virus ourselves, and the spread still continues to increase. So now, the tourist and the locals are at as much risk as everybody else. If we travel, we're at risk. If the tourist comes to Belize, they are at risk. We thought that in order for us to really move forward with what the new normal will be - because as we know, COVID-19 isn't going anywhere - is to allow tourism stakeholders to be able to generate some level of revenues. And the current restrictions that came into effect yesterday morning certainly provides that. And we're pleased to see that our pleas were taken into consideration."
Stuart Krohn - 2nd VP, BTIA "An important part of this, though, is that once you assume that all of us are in this together, tourist and local, we have to enhance the enforcement of the social distancing and all the regulations. It doesn't make sense to invite people in and then suddenly, nobody's wearing, and people are having parties. That is more important than ever because what will throw us back into regression is if Belize became known as a place where COVID-19 is just running rampant. That's gonna be something that gonna mean that visitors are no longer gonna come. We have to uphold our part and really get serious about the enforcement. The same thing that's happening in Belize is happening in the United States, our biggest source of tourists. And to tell you the truth, until the situation up there changes, we're still never going to regain the amount of business that has been lost. So, even though we do everything that we can here to enhance our protocols, as long as the virus is out of control in North America, we're not going to recover. It's that simple."
We also asked these BTIA executives to discuss a possible uptick in visitors, starting this week, leading into the tourism high season a few weeks from now. They told us that tourism stakeholders must try to convince their potential guests to visit Belize, now that the safe-corridor restrictions have been relaxed a bit more:
Stuart Krohn "Let's understand that the month of October is, in fact, the slowest month of the year for tourism. So, nobody in the industry or BTB was expecting some mad rush of tourists to come in October. The critical period that we're in now, it's the time when people start booking their vacations for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for January, February, and March, which is the busiest part of our season. It's still a little bit too early to tell, but most of my colleagues that I speak to, they're seeing a trickle of interest coming in. Inquiries are picking up. Some bookings are being made. Let's hope that these new liberalized protocols will help that."
John Burgos "The sentiments of the tourism stakeholders, at least the ones that I have been in contact with, since the announcement last week Thursday is that they are hoping to convince some of the travellers who were really looking to cancel their trips for December or January, to reconsider based on the new restrictions. So, they're feeling very optimistic that they're gonna be able to regain some of those tourists to be able to come now."
Yesterday, the Belize Tourism Board sent out a press release which says, quote,
"The Safe Corridor for tourists has been expanded to include all Gold Standard and Certified entities including hotels, tour operators, restaurants, tourism sites, gift shops, car rentals, and taxis. While Tourists can therefore move around freely, they are highly encouraged to remain within the safe corridor by visiting and using only those entities that are Gold Standard Certified, and the certification is displayed and clearly visible.
The Tourism Gold Standard Program that is currently in place for Hotels and Tour Operators will now be offered to other entities within the Tourism Industry including Tourism sites and attractions, Restaurants, and Gift shops. In addition, Car Rentals, Taxis, and other approved transport providers will continue to be offered a Certification under the Tourism Gold Standard program." End quote.
