Building the Capacity of the Tourism Industry during the Pandemic

The tourism industry was among the first to be shattered by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the country rebounds, there is need to adapt new strategies going forward.  Josue Carballo is the Industry Development Director with the Belize Tourism Board and earlier this week, he was asked about what is being done to build the capacity of industry stakeholders to maximise the economic benefits.

Josue Carballo, Industry Development Director, B.T.B.

“We work with everything that has to do with product development, destination planning and in that light, we have been preparing for this high season in looking at opening gateways, opening new accesses to specific areas. We just inaugurated as you saw the Hopkins Road. We just finished a big project together with Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing to uplift and upgrade and even add culverts going into the ATM caves entrance as well. So in that light, we have been working there. We did a big program to do a full clean up of the Haulover Creek from the Chetumal Bridge right up to the Haulover. It was impassable – maybe not serviced for the past three years and that is used a lot by the local resorts and the fishermen for fishing tours. We are in consultation with our eco-sustainable partners. We are having a series of meetings with APAMO, with TASA to offer that support and looking at the future possibility of a full certification in the eco-tourism sector.”