Belize City, Belize – Thursday, July 19, 2012
A contingent of four tourism delegates represented Belize at the 85th ordinary meeting of the Central American Tourism Council (CCT) on July 11th – 12th 2012. The series of meetings were held at the Hotel Camino Real in Managua, Nicaragua. The 85th Ordinary Meeting is a conference geared towards technical tourism meetings and a general meeting for the Tourism Ministers of Central America. Belize was represented by Tracy Panton and Valdemar Andrade of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Alyssa Carnegie and Lenny Ayuso of the BTB.
Participants discussed plans and projects related to enhancing the promotion of Central America as a tourist destination. Tracy Panton, CEO in the Ministry of Tourism and Culture shared, “One of the highlights of the meeting was the inauguration of the new CCT president, Nicaragua’s Minister of Tourism, Mario Salinas. On behalf of Dr. Nelly Jerez, past CCT President, and Minister of Tourism of Honduras, Cynthia Bennett Salomon, Tourism Vice Minister of Honduras presented the new President Mario Salinas with a plaque displaying the names of the past CCT Presidents.”
President Mario Salinas thereafter presented his plan expounding on how he would work to continue the course of presenting the positive image of Central America. Other discussions included sustainable tourism, tourist security and the preparations being made for the Central America Travel Market (CATM) to be held in October, 2012 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in which Belize will participate. Cinia Molina, Director of CATM from the Tourism Institute of Honduras (IHT) said, “CATM encourages the establishment of business relationships between Central American tourism service providers with major international wholesaler markets. It seeks to promote knowledge of the regions along with their diverse tourism products.”
The 85th CCT Meeting concluded on July 12th. Belize looks forward to participate in future meetings to promote Belize and Central America as a top tourist destination.
