7 News Belize

Belize on Cover of American Way Magazine
posted (June 17, 2009)

American Way, it’s the in flight magazine for American Airlines and the June issue has a cover story on Belize. It’s a major plug for the sagging tourism industry as tens of thousands of travelers on American flights throughout the world will see the magazine. And it doesn’t hurt that the picture on the cover is of the PM’s wife. That seemed to make it reason for double the celebration today as the Tourism Board pulled out all the stops. Jacqueline Godwin found out more.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
For the first time visitors to Belize and abroad onboard any American Airlines flight will be able to read about Belize and hopefully make it their next destination that is because the airline in flight magazine American Way for the first time in its forty five year history has featured Belize on its cover.

Adam Pitluk, Editor –American Way
“When you think about Belize, at least when I think of Belize, I automatically think scuba diving or so I thought. Scuba diving and Belize are synonyms basically and people know to come down here for that. What I wanted to do was illustrate that there is much more going on in Belize than just what’s under the sea, that inland, up in the jungles, the ruins, the mountains, this is where it is at. This is a great place and I wanted people to know they can come down here and dive of course and that it will always be known for that but that there is much more going on.”

Shakira Oxley-Tsai, Dir. Marketing – BTB
“And this will actually have greater exposure for us. We are looking at some eight million eyeballs that will have an opportunity to see Belize up close and personal and through the eyes of the travel editor and so we are excited about this opportunity.”

Adam Pitluk,
“We do 24 covers a year. There are 24 issues of American Way, we come out every two weeks and twelve of those covers are relegated to celebrities, the other are relegated to destinations. So in any given month, you’re having 3.5 million set of eyeballs reading this magazine. It is very important to the general public and to the world at large because when you have people in an airplane, a fixed audience, a controlled audience reading about a place, some of these people aren’t flying to a tropical destination, they are going to a business meeting in Omaha. So when they look at Belize and they see it on the cover, they realize this is something worth checking out. So I would say it is very important and it is consequential in the sense that there are 3.5 million people on the planes that see it and another umpteen million on the worldwide web.”

And one Belizean lady who will gain worldwide recognition is the woman featured on the magazine cover. She may look like a model but she is actually the First Lady Kim Simplis Barrow who spent one day in Placencia on the beach being photographed for the special edition.

Kim Simplis-Barrow, Featured on cover of American Way
“It was a huge responsibility for me because I know that American Way Magazine is a marketing tool and therefore I knew that it would be a huge responsibility to Belize because I would be interviewed and I would have to be as articulate as I possibly can to portray Belize in the best possible way I could so it was a huge responsibility.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Tell me about the experience of that photo shoot. How many takes did they have to do?

Kim Simplis-Barrow,
“A lot. There were like different takes in different parts of the country. This was in Placencia and we were just like experimenting and so forth but the photographer is so great. He is fantastic so it was an experience. I have t say it was an experience.”

Belize is just one of the more than two hundred destinations American Airlines service so we are not sure when Belize will be featured again but at least in this June edition of American Way giant leaps have been made in increasing tourist arrivals to the country. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7News.

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