The Cerros Maya site overlooking Corozal Bay – a favored retirement area for North American and European expats. Image Credit Belize Tourism Board

The government of has been offering all-expenses covered junkets to a bevy of writers in an effort to place stories promoting the country’s tourism attractions. To date more than a dozen writers have taken the bait and written what some would describe as puff pieces in various print and online media and garnered dozens of links for SEO promotion of its website. But not all writers have obliged with the hoped-for stories adorned with peacock words.

SLATE.com writer Seth Stevenson this week penned a balanced piece on Belize and announced that yes, he had accepted a Belize junket but that he was not going to write the article government was expecting: “A little while back, I accepted an invitation from the Belize Tourism Board to take an all-expenses-paid tour of that country. This is what we in the media term “a junket.” The BTB hoped that by bringing me down there, and showing me a decent time, they could nudge me into writing a travel story for American readers—a story reporting that Belize is a gorgeous, climatically temperate place populated by friendly, law-abiding people. I’m not going to write that story.”

Mr. Stevenson adds that “The fact is, you’d be rightly skeptical of any positive assessment given that I accepted free airfare and accommodation from the Belizean government.) More interesting to me—and the reason, in addition to wanting a cheap escape from New York’s winter weather, that I agreed to go on the junket—was the business story lurking beneath the travel story. I wondered how, other than by brainwashing foreign writers, Belize goes about marketing itself to potential visitors as a better choice than, say, Mexico, or Peru, or Namibia.”

In his article Mr. Stevenson examines the Maya 2012 Apocalypse tourism hoopla being pushed by Belize and other countries to turn a buck on the latest end-of-the-world craze. No. The Maya never did say the world would end in 2012. Like many indigenous peoples all over the world, their culture has been hijacked to make this interpretation. The Belize Tourism Board has doubled its advertising budget since Mr. Stevenson was in Belize. The U.S. public relations expert embedded in Belize and which provided much of the material for the story has since been seen off to greener pastures. But the spending of large sums  of tax payers monies on press junkets and foreign P.R firms and web developers and SEO links continues unabated.

Some interesting statistics on BTB marketing pitches to lure visitors make this one of the better articles on Belize to date. For example the key target for tourism is 35 – to 64-year-old travelers who have previously visited Mexico or the Caribbean and are “ready for something more adventurous than an all-inclusive resort. People who want a more emotional and authentic experience, without throngs of other tourists.”

The country cannot compete with the market leader in the region – Costa Rica. Its high crime rate, crumbling infrastructure, lack of investor confidence and high prices make it  perennial last place finisher. According to the BTB, the best Belize can do is hope for crumbs: Costa Rica has long owned the “green,” eco-friendly niche among yuppie American travelers. But the BTB hopes that when these folks get bored of one spot, and look around for novel ports of call, they’ll notice Belize’s unspoiled forests, rivers, and beaches.

The newest destination darling of visitors, Panama, has a leg up on Belize: “It’s the new ‘it’ place,” says Yanik Dalhouse. “It doesn’t have the ‘green’ angle, or the cultural heritage angle. But it has trendy shopping and fast-paced nightlife. It’s attracting a younger crowd, 20-45, more Europeans, and not just backpackers—it’s bringing in people who want to go to clubs to hear DJs. We can’t compete on that score.”

Turning to the latest angle – the Maya 2012 Apocalypse, the SLATE piece says: How much do these apocalypse tourism packages have to do with actual Mayan culture? That’s debatable. What’s not debatable is that the Mayan stuff—in an apocalypse year or no—is an intriguing tourist hook, sure to appeal to educated, curious, sophisticated travelers. And it has a much better chance of paying off for this country than would be an effort to lure, say, the kind of spring breakers who often flock to Cancun. “We don’t even try to get those people,” says Dalhouse. “We can’t offer them what they’re looking for, and we can’t pretend to be something we’re not. Anyway, right now it’s too expensive for college kids to get here.” The SLATE article on Apocalypse Tourism.