At the top of the news we told you about the August 15th re-opening of
the PGIA.
We got reaction from the head of the Belize Hotel Association and the
Belize Tourism Industry Association.
We start with the BTIA where the Executive Director told us that
members of the Association have already been doing their own
preparations for the day when visitors would be allowed to travel to
Belize. Via teleconference this evening, he shared his views on the
role that the Government and the industry stakeholders need to take, in
order for the recovery of the industry to properly begin:
John Burgos - Executive Director, BTIA
"A lot of people were inclined to the opening on the 1st of July, which was
what was being requested by many businesses. So, that's the reason why we
went to the survey. And, in the survey, we agreed that 88% of the
membership that responded to the survey agree that they would welcome the
opportunity to reopen the PGIA, once they have the right safeguards in
place. And I can tell you right now that we support that, and I believe we
have made a lot of advancements with regard to the year. We have seen some
plans being shared out already, some webinars already being conducted for
hotels, accommodations, and restaurants. We just received the document for
the tour operators. So, we know that we are in a better position to reopen
the PGIA by August 15th. One of the things that we have been doing is that
we have been sharing information that let's not wait for the Government to
tell you what you will need to do. You can begin to do your own research.
We had been sharing a lot of information as to what new sanitation
measures, what new products can be used."
"The opening of the PGIA is only the beginning of what should be a
recovery plan. But, it's not gonna be the saviour. It's gonna a while
before we're gonna be able to get back the numbers of tourists that we
used to have before. And also, we don't really know what is going to be
the impact when we reopen the airport. We have been tracking what is
happening in Jamaica, and we have seen that they have experienced an
increase in COVID-19 cases in their respective countries. So, we know
that you're gonna have that. We want to know that we have an acceptable
level of risks that we're gonna be putting the country [in] when we
begin to open the airports and the borders. I think all the
stakeholders in the tourism industry need to be sure that they are
fully trained and prepared for the reopening. I think the Belize
Tourism Board and the Ministry of Tourism need to lead the movement to
get everybody trained and properly sensitized with what they need to
do. Let's provide a very good experience because having tourists also
comes with meeting their expectations as a tourist destination."
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