Press Release: Hall of Fame

For immediate release:

Black Orchid Resort

 AWARDED TRIPADVISOR CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE FOR FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS

Inducted into ‘Hall of Fame’ of Five-time Certificate of Excellence Winners on the World’s Largest Travel Site

CITY, STATE/COUNTRY – May 22^nd  2015 – Black Orchid Resort, Burrell Boom Village, Belize District today announced that it has been recognized as a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence Hall of Fame winner.  The Certificate of Excellence award celebrates excellence in hospitality and is given only to establishments that consistently achieve great traveler reviews on TripAdvisor. The ‘Hall of Fame’ was created to honour those businesses that have earned a Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years.  Winners include accommodations, eateries and attractions located all over the world that have continually delivered a superior customer experience. 

EXAMPLE QUOT “Being awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence five years in a row and inducted into the ‘Hall of Fame’ is a true source of pride for the entire team at Black Orchid Resort and we’d like to thank all of our past guests who took the time to complete a review on TripAdvisor,” said Beverly Dawson, Operations Manager at Black Orchid Resort. “There is no greater seal of approval than being recognized by one’s customers. With the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence based on customer reviews, the accolade is a remarkable vote of confidence to our business and our continued commitment to excellence.  Black Orchid Resort has been ranked #1 on the TripAdvisor Customer Satisfaction Index in the Belize District for over 9 years”.

"Winning the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years is a remarkable feat. TripAdvisor is pleased to induct five-time award winners into the ‘Hall of Fame’,” said Marc Charron President, TripAdvisor for Business. “By putting a spotlight on businesses that are focused on consistently delivering great service to customers, TripAdvisor not only helps drive an improvement to hospitality standards around the world, it also gives businesses both large and small the ability to shine and stand out from the competition.”

When selecting Certificate of Excellence winners, TripAdvisor uses a proprietary algorithm to determine the honorees that take into account the quality, quantity and recency of reviews and opinions submitted by travelers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period as well as business’s tenure and ranking on the Popularity Index on the site.  To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.

-ENDS-

Black Orchid Resort

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor^® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travelers to plan and book the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find the best hotel prices. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 340 million unique monthly visitors**, and more than 225 million reviews and opinions covering more than 4.9 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 45 countries worldwide. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 24 other travel media brands: www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.thefork.com (including www.lafourchette.com, www.eltenedor.com, www.iens.nl and www.besttables.com), www.gateguru.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.jetsetter.com, www.niumba.com, www.onetime.com, www.oyster.com, www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com, www.travelpod.com, www.tripbod.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com, www.viator.com, www.virtualtourist.com, and www.kuxun.cn. 

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, December 2014

**Source: Google Analytics, average monthly unique users, Q1 2015

Contact:

Douglas Thompson

Owner

Black Orchid Resort

douglas@blackorchidresort.com

www.blackorchidresort.com

cell: 633-8288

Xunantunich

Discover the mysteries of the Mayan civilization!

Xunantunich is a Mayan archeological site situated near the border of Guatemala. In only two hours, you will have crossed all the country, from the East to the West. On the way to the site, you will see Belmopan, the capital of the country, and San Ignacio, the biggest city after Belize City. You will also perceive the famous "sleeping giant". It is a mountain range that has the shape of a lengthened giant when you approach it.

Xunantunich is known since 1938. The site is famous for its frescoes of stucco on the main pyramid that still are in a good state of preservation. The highest temple of Xunantunich is called "El Castillo" and you can climb to its summit if you are willing to. It seems unfeasible when you face it from the bottom but you will arrive at the top rapidly without being aware of it! From above, you will have a stunning view of the border between Belize and Guatemala and its amazing scenery. Thanks to your guide you will learn more about the Mayan civilization, its lifestyle and its faiths.

Discover Altun Ha

Enjoy a unique experience at Altun Ha! 

Altun Ha is a Mayan archaeological site situated approximately about 40 minutes from the Black Orchid Resort by car. A lot of Mayan sites in Belize were destroyed but fortunately some of them remain, such as Altun Ha, a place where almost 10 000 people used to live. This site is known because this is where archaeologists have found numerous sculptures made from jade. Today, the site is a protected reserve on which archaeologists continue to work. It is possible to climb at the top of the temples for a clearer view of where and how the Mayas lived. You will also have the opportunity to go at the summit of the temple of the Sun God, which is the biggest of the site. It is also the one on which the Mayas made their human sacrifices.

Our guide will be here to teach you more about the Mayan civilization and its history; so do not hesitate to ask him all of your questions!

 At the end of the tour, you will be able to discover some typical souvenirs from Belize. They are mainly hand-made of mahogany by local people. You will find a large variety of art such as traditional masks or small wooden flutes.

Zip lining in Belize: a Bird’s Eye View of the Rainforest Canopy

Belize City - A snap shot

Belize City, located on a peninsula that is the furthest Eastern point in the country, is said to have been built on a foundation of “rum bottles, logwood chips and loose coral.”  Founded in the early 1700s by the pirate Baymen of St. George’s Caye, Belize City now has a population of over 70,000 people. 

Although Belize City gives up ground to the Caribbean each year, and the government moved inland to avoid the pattern of natural disasters that strike there, it is still a bustling city filled to the brim with both residents and tourists. While one can get there by flying into the airport ten miles outside the city of Ladyville not far from downtown Belize, many tourists find their way to Belize through transatlantic cruises, as Belize City is an important port and stopping place for cruise ships. Perhaps the biggest draw to Belize is that at least fifty percent of the country is covered by dense jungle. Largely rainforest under the protection of the government, these forests remain mostly unexplored and filled with tropical foliage and animals ranging from crocodiles to jaguars and armadillos. Hosting over four thousand species of flowers and five hundred species of birds, Belize is a wildlife wonderland. With unprecedented beauty and thousands of different species of flora and fauna, visitors might have trouble planning just how to go about seeing it all. Luckily, companies like the Black Orchid Resort have already thought of this and offer guests the chance to take their cues from the winged residents of the rainforest and fly through the canopy.

Pulleys and Zip lines and Helmets - Oh My

Zip lining, also called a canopy adventure, is a tree-based aerial trekking course. While wearing helmets as well as harnesses that safely attach them to a cable, participants use natural gravity to propel themselves from platform to platform through the rainforest canopy high above the ground. Zip lining, while perhaps more of a thrill ride than what it was intended to be when first invented, started as a form of conveyance that began out of necessity. Residents and workers in areas like remote regions of China, the Costa Rican rainforest and the Australian Outback often needed to quickly transport people and supplies across impassable areas like canyons or rivers. To do this, they would create a form of gravity-fueled transport using pulleys that would thread cables between two points.

Popular especially in countries with large rain forests or canyons, zip lining can now be found all over the world in correlation with busy tourist-filled cities. Part of the reason for its popularity is the way participants get around within the Zip line course. By setting the pulleys at different levels throughout the canopy, participants do not need a lot of upper body strength or to be especially fit. This is advantageous not only for participants who might not have ever had a chance to see the rainforest from a bird’s eye view, but it also allows companies to make a profit from an activity that is neither expensive to produce nor intrusive to the environment through which participants zip line.

In Belize we have the Longest Zip Line course in Central America. We have 12 platforms through the pristine jungle in the Mayflower Bocawina National Forest. The longest zip line run is 2,300 feet long and is considered the longest in Belize. We also offer night zip lining. Hear the noises of the night as you zip through the jungle with our experienced guides. And it’s even more spectacular during a full moon! 

World’s Biggest Zip lines

Now that zip lining has taken off as both a sport and a tourist attraction throughout the world, there have of course been some extreme examples built in order to achieve certain world records. The Eye of the Jaguar is the longest zip line in the world. Constructed from a single cable, participants reach an astounding speed of 110 kilometers per hour. This zip line is located 45 minutes north of Cusco, in Peru, and is 2, 130 meters or 1.3 miles long. On the other side of the Atlantic in Snowdonia, Wales, there is a zip line that reaches speeds of over 100 miles per hour, and travels 500 feet above the mountain lake at Penrhyn Quarry for almost a mile. It is exactly 1,600 meters or just under a mile long.

Fly Through Belize

If you’ve never zip lined before, but have a desire to experience the rainforest and aren’t quite sure what that might mean — consider flying through the canopy absorbing all that nature has to offer. You won’t be disappointed, and odds are you’ll remember your adventure for the rest of your life.

contributor, Susan Gibbons

Wheel of Fortune Celebrity arrives in Belize! 

Black Orchid Resort welcomes Autumn and her fiance Joey to Belize. Follow them as they uncover the Best of Both World Package at the Black Orchid Resort:

Full day Lamanai Maya Site tour

Full day Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave (ATM) tour

Snorkel Hol Chan reserve & Shark Ray Alley

Full day Cave tubing and zip-lining

Beach Day at a private island

Half day Howler Monkey Sanctuary tour

Tour of the Belize Zoo 

Night Crocodile Spotting tour