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Noriko Gamero, Director of Cruise & Destination Planning, BTB
"Today is a first ever Belize Cruise Conference 2019 which is geared to provide information from a collective of 60 years of experience plus of expertise and panelists and people who have been in the industry for many many years. What we wanted is to have these people express to our local stakeholders their knowledge, kind of opening their eyes of what they need to get ready, of the shifts and changes that are happening in the industry, what are passengers looking for, what are the different cruise lines looking for. We want our stakeholders to stay ready, what they should be looking at in terms of guest satisfaction and how they should be collecting the feedback from the passengers and how they themselves can improve, looking how you infuse that guest experience , how do you get that added value into your tour operations, your retail store, your restaurant, everybody is a service provider in this industry and everybody here can benefit from the level of expertise from the panelists."

"I think this morning's panel we heard from a guest satisfaction stand point Belize is increasing we have improved dramatically over the years and right now on average we are an 8.2, however how do we compare to the Caribbean, the Caribbean is at an 8.8 so there is little room for improvement that can make a drastic difference for us as a destination so this is feedback we get and this is how we are here today."

Beth Hatt, Aquila's Center for Cruise Excellence, Canada
"I was asked to share information on how to add value to your tour because we certify tour guides and we do frontline training so a lot of the training that we do is about making sure that everyone in that room is an ambassador for the country and so how do they add value, how do they treat guests they would a guest coming to visit in their home not just another passenger, another tourist but it does make a difference how that is done, the story telling part of things and guest satisfaction and how making sure that guests are 'wowed' and how it helps to increase the ratings and increase their tips."

Chiara Giorgi, Global Brand Director, Seatrade Cruise Events
"I came here today to talk about key trends affecting the cruise industry, so how destinations like Belize sort of keep up and adapt so I spoke about 4 key trends and one was around going green and the fact that environmentally friendly practices go beyond less use of plastics to the way consumers are traveling around the world and how they are interacting with brands. Then I spoke about one size does not fit all so you can't expect that on one cruise ship there is going to be the exact same customer throughout there are multiple customers so you have to fit and fulfill the needs of every one of them. And then how technology has played a role in really developing how things are done on board so they are now using biometrics and facial recognition technology in some of the ports they are developing so how ports ensure they keep up with those trends so a passenger is having a seamless experience from on board to shore."