BTB confirms new Director of Tourism is not qualified for the post

Dear Sirs,

I find the whole process behind replacing Mrs. Tracy Panton for the Director of Tourism at the Belize Tourism Board to be a joke and in the same breath very disrespectful to every one of us working in this industry.

The UDP government has now gone back to how things used to be done and made the position a fully fledged political appointment.  This is the amount of respect they give to this very important sector of the economy.  After receiving several applications for the post from qualified persons, they decided to go with a hand-picked recommendation of Mike Singh, the CEO in the Ministry of Tourism.  The very same thing this government said it would not do (cronyism and nepotism) it continues to do.

I also find it a joke because the official government press release on the political appointment (sent out by BTB on Friday, February 12^th) of Ms. Seleni Matus states clearly that her work experience indeed has only been project management.   So we are entrusting the leading position in this industry (the Director of Tourism) to a person who has only done project management for one local NGO and 1 international NGO doing capacity building and technical assistance work.  It is incredible that the official press release admits that their political appointment has had no practical work experience in the industry – an industry that is grappling with serious revenue, marketing, product development and hotel challenges.  We are approaching March which should be peak season in the industry but anyone working in tourism can tell you the numbers are simply not what they used to be.

The official press release goes on to say that “…Ms. Matus was the lead advisor in the formulation of an Environmental Action Plan for Belize, which had the potential to serve as a model for cruise lines travel destinations around the world”.  So, this same government’s official press release admits that the work that Ms. Matus was not successful.   Simply incredible!

Then, to make it worst, the official government press release on their political appointment can’t even confirm the date when Ms. Matus will take up her post.  All it says “Ms. Matus is expected to assume her post shortly”.   So the country has had to wait since November to learn when there will be a new Director of Tourism and who the Director of Tourism will be.  Now after being told who it will be, we still have to wait to find out how much longer the country will be operating without one.  Simply incredible!

The worse thing of all though is the disrespect that Mike Singh and the government showed for the hard working men and women of the Belize Tourism Board. Most of the people found out about the appointment from a Love FM news cast. Good way to build moral at an important agency where moral is at an all time low. Simply incredible!

How much more disrespect are we going to take?  A lot of us depend on this industry because it is the only thing that is putting food on our tables. When will they get serious about it?

Respectfully,

A very concerned tour operator

| | | | | |