Tourism Board, PACT donate pickups to B.D.F.

A couple of weeks ago, the Belize Tourism Board added some muscle to the Tourism Police in the form of some much needed communication and transportation equipment. Today, that effort continued as the B.T.B. along with the Protected Areas Conservation Trust came together to donate four brand new Isuzu pickup trucks, this time to the Belize Defence Force. The vehicles will be used specifically to deter crime in the more remote areas of the Cayo district. According to representatives of both organisations, it’s all about equipping the right people with the right stuff.

Godfrey Smith, Minister of Tourism
?There was a special tourism security task force set up comprised of members of the B.D.F., police, the National Institute of Culture and History, the Forestry Department, B.T.I.A., all the stakeholders. In that, a special sub-committee was formed headed up by the Belize Defence Force. They came up with a plan of action if you will, and this is in fulfilment of it. It?s going to be done by phases, this is Phase Two. The aim is to have seven vehicles totally in order to beef up patrols in the area. Today, we see the handing over of four pickup trucks according to the specifications of the Belize Defence Force. It will be put entirely at their disposal in fulfilment of their plan of action that they have for the Cayo district to be able to stem rising crime.?

Valdemar Andrade, Executive Director, PACT
?The tourism industry is very important for us in the protected areas field. They use a lot of our sites. So the general safety of the people that work within the protected areas, the local people that go into the protected areas and also the tourists that go into the protected areas are very important for us. And so basically we are partnering with our tourism partners today to equip the B.D.F. to be able to do the necessary patrols, to provide the safety for the tourists in general, whether it be Belizean tourists or foreign tourists that come to visit these areas.?

The B.T.B. and PACT each contributed two vehicles. Total cost for the four trucks was in the neighbourhood of two hundred thousand dollars. The B.T.B., this morning, also launched its new dedicated hotline: 0-800-TPU-0000 and is appealing to the public to report tourism related crime.