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Karen Bevans, Director of Tourism
"The main message Jules, is that the industry is strong, it's stable, tourism is growing and there are many opportunities in new and emerging markets that the BTB is looking at and is going after for the stake holders."

Jules Vasquez reporting
On Saturday at the Fido's courtyard in San Pedro - that's the message that tourism stakeholders - mostly from the overnight sector gathered to hear at the annual industry presentation.

Osmany Salas, President - BTIA
"It's useful. It's very important to bring the key players together at least once a year."

And this year, there was mild anxiety amongst tourism interest about a modest downturn in arrival figures after successive years of strong growth:

Manuel "Junior" Herredia, Minister of Tourism
"Since 2008 with our collective efforts we have seen a 31% increase in overnight arrivals and a whopping 62% in cruise arrivals in Belize."

And that's why the 2015 downturn has raised some eyebrows:

Osmany Salas, President - BTIA
"The Numbers this year, in terms of overnight arrives have not been going up as previous years."

Karen Bevans, Director of Tourism
"2015 so far we had a 1.2 less growth than we had in 2014."

Jules Vasquez
"Over what period?"

Karen Bevans, Director of Tourism
"The first half of this year."

Jules Vasquez
"First half?"

Karen Bevans
"Correct."

Osmany Salas
"Even though there was an ad in Caribbean Journal Magazine that tourism growth in Belize has slowed down. I wouldn't get alarmed."

"One year does not a trend make. We need to look at the previous years. If you look at the last 5-6 years the numbers have been going up but if you only compare it to the 1st 4 or 5 months of 2014 the figures have gone down a little bit."

But - it may go down more - the US opening ties with Cuba will draw visitors away from Belize:

Karen Bevans
"We know Cuba is coming up and hence our reason for diversifying and looking at new and emerging markets like South America and Europe. We definitely have to do something and getting to those markets and expand our market share. Also with the threat of Cuba coming on board, the board and we put strategies in place to diversify, get into emerging markets. We cannot continue to do things the same and expect that the market will just grow and grow if we just look at the North America market. European and the South American travelers, the market is big, the market is great and we are looking at that now."

"The announcement by Copa last week as well complements this and because Copa of course will be flying from Panama to Belize and that has great connections to the South American market, Caribbean market and European market as well."

More than strategies, they are also putting money behind it:

Karen Bevans
"I am pleased to mention that our board of directors has approved a million dollars investment to dig deeper in new and emerging markets including South America and Europe."

But when those new guests come, where will they stay? Truth is there are more seats on airplanes coming into Belize than there are beds in hotel rooms:

Karen Bevans
"Room stock is an issue. The more we promote the more we market. We expect higher arrival numbers. We have to be prepared for that. We already talked to the Belize Hotel Association to see what we can do for room stock. We are working with BELTRAIDE to see if we can get some more tourism investments into hotels or bigger properties."

And while the mood on this day was not hostile - we know that the private industry and the government controlled board to have issues:

Osmany Salas
"You know the BTB has been doing a good job. We could always improve."

Jules Vasquez
"But there are those in the private sector who said BTB is a waste of time it's just pure administrative bloat. It's no longer the industry leader that it needs to be. We need to find, charter our own direction because BTB is falling over itself with its bloat."

Karen Bevans
"Jules I've been with BTB for the past 16 months and the presentation we have this afternoon for the year forward 2015, is to give comfort to the stakeholders and our industry partners that BTB is stable from a human resource standpoint, from a financial standpoint and from the strategies we are implementing."

And one of the main comforts is the BTB's financial wellbeing:

Jules Vasquez
"What is the status for overall budget with BTB and especially for marketing?"

Karen Bevans
"Jules the entire budget is now being satisfied. We are operating cash positive and everything that we need to do base from recommendations from our international marketing agencies, those are being done. I must say that we are financially stable and again we will show this afternoon. To do that of course we had to enhance our efficiency measures internally, but with that done and with proper controls put in place, we have been able to get our external audit up to date, which shows that we are stable and we can perform to the level the industry demands of us."

And the demand is not a small one: to keep these folks happy by making the industry continue growing in a globally competitive marketplace.

Later on we'll have more on tourism as we discussed other issues with Bevans - including reports that American Airlines may be cutting back on flights to Belize.