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The Prime Minister yesterday discussed her departure - saying it is regrettable but, in his view, unavoidable:..

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Things have just reached a point where the former tourism director and the directors on the Belize Tourism Board simply were not going to make it; the working relationship had obviously been terribly jeopardized to an extent where it was beyond rescue. I personally and I've made this clear, was a believer in Mrs. Matus, I thought she was extraordinary talented, I thought she was extraordinary experienced and I thought she was doing an excellent job. But ultimately the Board is the Board and if they as the representatives of the industry, could no longer work with the director of tourism, them it seems to me that what happened was inevitable. I am not going to wasn't time lamenting that fact; the Board has assured me that a plan is in place, that the implementation of the plan is not anything that will suffer as a consequence of the departure of the ex-director. The Board tells me that their stakeholders the people who put them on the BTB are satisfied that this is nothing more than some little hiccup, are satisfied that the industry is in good shape that the prospects for continued advance are intact, and that is enough for me."

In an exit interview with 7news, Matus portrayed the board as trying to get overly involved in the day to day running of the BTB, and suggested that they were looking for an administrator, not a director.