Belize City, Wednesday, September 23, 2009 – Belize joined more than 750 delegates and senior hospitality executives at the Eleventh Annual Vacation Ownership Investment Conference held on September 14 – 17 at The Peabody Orlando.
The event educated attendees about the tremendous potential of the vacation ownership industry, one of hospitality’s most vibrant sectors with over $10 billion in annual U.S. sales. The conference featured panel discussions, networking opportunities, and resort tours. The “Meet the Leaders” panel included industry experts who shared their knowledge on current issues and future trends in tourism.
The Vacation Ownership Conference (VOIC) was designed to provide developers and potential visitors with the necessary tools and networking opportunities to intelligently and effectively enter into the vacation ownership industry. The event brought together the essential entities for successful timeshare, fractional and private residence club, developments including consulting, branding, designing, financing, marketing, sales, management and an abundance of market research.
Experts presented timely research and commentary on the state of the US shared ownership and lodging industries to create an in-depth picture of how the hospitality industry is performing. Topics included legal issues, consumer protection, site regulations, marketing programs, advantages of real estate conversion in today’s market, navigating through the downturn, unique advantages of developing in emerging markets such as Mexico and Central America, the considerations for developing, marketing and selling in secondary markets in the United States, Fractional Resorts and learning “in-house” marketing best practices to convert resort guests into owners. Lenders and developers’ gave first-hand perspectives on the capital challenges facing today’s industry and their projections on future trends.
“Vacation ownership has been around since the early 1970’s, but Belize has only just begun to get actively involved in this aspect of our tourism industry since early 2000,” comments Registrar of Hotels, Lloyd Enriquez. “Attendance at the conference was an amazing opportunity to share thoughts and insights into the future of this sector with a group of industry leaders, as well as to acquire updated information for us to become more effective regulators of the industry,” noted Enriquez.
Attending on behalf of the Belize Tourism Board were Mr. Lloyd Enriquez, Registrar of Hotels; Mr. Orlando Azueta, Internal Auditor; Mr. Noel Escalante, Senior Tax Auditor; and Mr. Javier Paredez, Hotel Tax Auditor.
