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Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association
"Well, listen, cruise tourism is a different beat, and I will not speculate much because that is not my area of expertise. I attended today because, as you saw, there is an element... there is a hotel element to the Olo Caye development, and Mr. Dibattista himself is involved in not just cruise tourism, but also in overnight accommodations sector as well. So I don't know enough about cruise to even venture an opinion about what that will mean, but I did note the differentiation that they tried to make between ferrying and tendering. That was an interesting one, so I will have to dig into that a little bit more and figure that out for myself."

Hotel Association Welcomes New Frankfurt-to-Belize Flight via Costa Rica

Speaking about something closer to his segment of the tourism sector, the press asked Malik for his views on the flight from Frankfurt to Belize via Costa Rica, which starts next year.

We asked Malik if overnight interests have any concerns about its first stop in Costa Rica. He explained that it is a good thing for travelers in Costa Rica who have an interest in visiting Belize:

Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association
"No, not necessarily, because of two things. One, in speaking with those in the airline industry-I was in London last week and had the opportunity to speak with a few people-in their parlance, because when the flight lands in Costa Rica the passengers bound for Belize will not have to deplane, in their parlance they consider it to still be a direct flight. So that is one. And two, I think that by sharing the route with Costa Rica, who is popular as well, I think it mitigates our risk in terms of losing the flight, because now you have interest in the flight being created by multiple destinations at the same time. So I think that is a fair enough way for mitigating the risk for our first connection from Europe."

Reporter:
"So when those coming to Costa Rica deplane, there is an opportunity in Costa Rica for other people in Costa Rica to come to Belize?"

Reynaldo Malik:
"That is correct. I would want to think from a logistical standpoint what you are looking at:Europeans, as we know from the data, travel much longer than North Americans. So a European, when they look at journeying to the other side of the world for a vacation, they are not coming for four nights, they are not coming for seven nights-they are coming for two weeks, sometimes three weeks, right? So the hope is that what we are looking to create is a multi-stop vacation for them, where a traveler that originates, let's say, in Germany be coming and maybe, if they want to share the vacation, stop in Costa Rica. You will have some that come directly to Belize-Belize is the only destination-but I believe that you will have some that will come and stop in Costa Rica first and then make the hop to Belize, stay in Belize as well, and then make the journey back at a later date."

Malik Says Seasonal European Travel Will Boost Overnight Tourism

Malik also discussed seasonal travel for European tourists and how it should boost the overnight segment:

Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association
"So data suggests that European travel season would be our shoulder months, or correspond to our shoulder months, which would be August, September, October-that is their time when they are looking to travel as well. But the airline also have... remember, this is not the first time Discover Air is venturing over to the Western Hemisphere; they already have other long-haul destinations, so they are relying on their data as well, and you have to look at what is the best time of the year in Belize in terms of weather. They are looking at all these things. My hope is, though, that once the interest in Belize is generated to start with, that it will then escalate into or grow into something that will cause Discover Air to say, 'We are going to go all year round.' Now, from where I am sitting, if we can get the growth to happen in our August-you guys have seen the Q3 numbers, right?-so if we can get the growth to happen in those months, then now we are really starting to talk about sustainable tourism growth, because you don't want to grow too much more in your late December, January, February, March, because now we are starting to overpopulate the tourism destinations. We have plenty of rooms, thousands of rooms unoccupied in the third quarter, and if we can grow responsibly in the third quarter, that is one way of growing our overnight accommodations sector without creating overtourism for Belize."