The Belize Hotel Association held its 2022 Annual General Meeting today under the theme, "Refueling and Re-emerging Through Synergy".
If it sounds optimistic, it's supposed to be - hotel property owners are enjoying a major post-COVID resurgence. And even as numbers may be currently rising, occupancy numbers are too, mostly undeterred by any health scares.
We today spoke with the outgoing President of the Hotel Association, and she told us that the membership will share ideas and knowledge on industry-relevant topics such as marketing, technology, and staffing:
Alina Saldivar - Outgoing President, BHA
"Today is our annual general meeting. It's a two-part day in the morning. Right now, what we're doing is an educational seminar. Things have changed a little bit after the pandemic, for example, in terms of digital marketing. So we're talking to the professionals about, you know, keeping up to date on what we need to be doing there. Staffing has changed. The dynamics in Belize for staffing have changed with the increase of fuel, staff maybe not be able to - Someone from Cayo looking for a job in Caye Caulker isn't really the norm anymore and the very, very high cost of real estate. So them finding somewhere to live and or properties, having staffing rooms isn't all that affordable anymore. So staffing has changed. So that's another big topic we're talking about today. And then we're also talking about IT companies in-country and what they have to offer to our industry. And then so we're going to break for lunch. And then after lunch, we have the official annual general meeting for the Hotel Association starting. The best part of that afternoon session is our guest speaker. So we brought in a dynamic guest speaker from Jamaica, Mr. Joel Namdar. And so, he is going to really be giving us some good tips about digital marketing. It's been a good year. We've been riding what we call the free ride of revenge struggle. So people have just been coming in. The planes are full, the hotels are full. So everyone has been doing well. But we need to be careful as things normalize. I don't know how long that revenge travel is going to last, but it's it looks very promising. So, we've been doing well. And I think that the economy has bounced back a lot because when the hotels start doing well, you know, it just trickles into so many different avenues. So it's been good."
As part of the AGM, the membership of the Hotel Association also elected new officers, who have not yet been publicly announced.
