And while the BTIA is striving to meet expectations, the BHA is
expressing its excitement at GOB's decision to finally set a reopening
date.
And BHA President Ted Tejada says that hotels need to re-start their
marketing campaigns in an attempt to recapture the wanderlust lost
during COVID-19:
Ted Tejada - President, BHS
"We have been receiving comments after the prime minister announced and
first of all let's congratulate the entire team that has been working on it
because it hasn't been easy. We know that the team has taken everything
into consideration, the medical results and all the experts out there asked
what is happening in Jamaica and these countries that have already
re-opened. We have been tracking that everyday, so congratulations to the
team and we are all excited that a date has been set. Actually, the
airlines have already been contacted and they have been advised of the new
date. Most of the hotels do require some funding to restart tourism, as
Karen Bevans alluded to, there is new protocols and safety features that
every hotel has to install and that is one of the things that Belize Hotel
Association wants to encourage every hotelier in the country of Belize,
opening on the 15th of August is not going to be the same prior to March
23rd, things have changed. There's new procedures of policy and safety that
we all have to make sure that we abide to for the safety of our employees
and for the safety of the guests. So many hotels require some funding just
to give you an idea, in order to buy let's say 12 dispensers for hand
sanitisers, it runs you through 5,200 dollars for 12 pieces. You need to
assess your hotel, how many pieces do you actually require and the markers
on the floor, the sneeze guards, the masks that your employees will be
wearing. There's an initial investment that every hotel has to make and
we're encouraging every single hotelier, please take it seriously, we need
to make sure that we look at the gold standard that the Belize Tourism
Board has established and we pay attention and not only pay attention, we
train our employees and install what the recommendations are on that
standard."
Reporter
"Can you talk a little bit about why there is no consideration for the
owners of Airbnb's at this time?"
Ted Tejada
"In terms of Airbnb and I don't think we are looking at small hotels in the
country of Belize in terms that we excluding them and I think the prime
minister made very clear, we are not excluding anyone. It's about
certifying the establishment with the gold standards that they are capable
of handling it. So, first of all, it's not excluding but every individual
hotel has to go through that certification with BTB, that they are ready to
operate. I don't think anybody will be excluded once they have certified.
There's a testing phase that we all have to go through every property,
every tour operator that we are doing the right thing. It's going to take,
I would say a month once tourism restarts to see that we are doing
everything right before it's open to everyone and we all are operating like
we used to do before Covid 19."
Tejada says that while Belize is known as an exceedingly friendly
destination warm gestures when greeting guests will have to be replaced
by hand signals.
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