Tourism project seeks to upgrade handicrafts

With tourism growing solidly in Belize, those involved in the industry are always trying to find ways to improve what the country has to offer. And with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Belize Tourism Board and Belize Tourism Industry Association launched one such project in 2005, entitled Improving Small Business Competitiveness in the Tourism Industry. As part of the initiative, surveys of small and micro enterprises were conducted to determine what we are selling, while another sought out tourists to find out what they want to buy. Today the results were presented to industry professionals at a workshop at the Radisson. According to project coordinator Diana Peyrefitte, the exercise found that foreigners go for all things local including food and crafts. And while there is no shortage of those products in Belize, it’s the quality of the work that needs attention.

Diana Peyrefitte, Project Coordinator
“We do have a lot of things made in Belize, but it’s the standard and the quality that becomes questionable at this point. We do have a lot of things coming out of PG, a lot of things coming out of Cayo. We have the Jippy Jappy baskets from P.G. We have slate carvings from Cayo, we have woodwork stuff from the Belize City area, so there are lot of beautiful stuff made in Belize, but there is standardization there is issue with quality. So this project is looking at how we can improve our small and micro enterprises through highlighting what is desired by our international tourists and then training them and helping them to make a better product with the quality that’s being looked for and that’s desired.”

“Branding will be key and we’ve realised that and that is an aspect of particular project. We will actually brand the products, so when tourists pick up an item they don’t have to be wondering where it comes from, because it will not only be indigenous to our country, but it will have a local certified label that authenticates it, that it is made in Belize, it is from Belize.”

It may surprise some viewers, but the fact is that many so-called souvenirs from Belize are actually made in China, elsewhere in Asia or Mexico.