Erosion of our beaches, sargassum swarms, storm surges - these are all effects of climate change that take value from Belize's rebounding tourism industry. And that's why the leading stakeholders are trying to move away from traditional tourism and chart a path for sustainable and resilient tourism.
BTIA gathered these stakeholders today for a summit that seeks to reimagine tourism in Belize under a new marketing model aimed at protecting the country's resources.
Courtney Menzies was there today and she has the highlights of the morning session:
Though tourism is Belize's largest income earner, it is also one of its
most fragile sectors and with climate change like an omnipresent and
ominous cloud, the BTIA held its "Reimagining Belize Tourism" summit.
This summit tackled environmental concerns currently affecting tourism and
ways that Belize can rebrand as a resilient tourist destination.
Linette Canto - Executive Director, BTIA
"We're looking at a variety of issues, we're looking at climate change
which has certainly impacted the tourism industry greatly, we're
looking at cruise ports, that is certainly an issue that has been
debated in the Belizean society for a while now, we're looking at how
do we market our tourism product. We know that there are a lot of
countries fighting for a slice of the same pie so how do we market
ourselves to be different to stand out. We're looking at the end of the
summit, everyone is going to be coming together and the final panel
will be looking at everything that was shared today and coming up with
a strategic direction as to the way forward with the industry."
The first panel discussed whether beach tourism is actually an ‘endangered
species.' Most of Belize's current marketing focus on white sands, blue
waters, and incredible marine life, but those attractions are threatened by
erosion, warmer waters, coral bleaching and plenty of other effects of
climate change.
And according to the panels' moderator, the answer to that topic is not
something you'd want to hear.
Janelle Chanona - Vice President, Oceana/Moderator
"Our illustrious panel had to concede, yes. And that's a hard thing to
think about because if you think about how much of our development both
in tourism and otherwise, our homes, are actually on our coastlines and
we think about all our developments at cayes, it's really hard to think
about that but that's why summit like this one that BTIA has organized
are really helpful in making sure that awareness, that data, and that
call to collective action is live and present because like you heard
inside, it's really that we're running out of time, we know what we
have to get done, but we have to make it happen. We're really talking
about diversification both in terms of our branding, in terms of our
development, the way we're developing, and perspective, so it's that we
need to not be focusing so much on maybe the white sand tourism, the
beach tourism, and really pushing that mangroves are awesome, seagrass
is sensational, and really making sure that that's the kind of draw
we're bringing and I think one presenter mentioned looping in guests
that are coming to Belize to say, here's how you can participate,
here's how you can help us to restore this eco-systems."
And the second set of panelists delved into cruise tourism and the two
proposed cruise ports - Port of Magical Belize in the south and Waterloo's
Port of Belize in Southside Belize City. Both representatives made their
arguments for why their port should be the one to follow Port Coral on
Stake Bank - but how many ports is too much?
Amanda Acosta - Executive Director, BAS/Moderator
"I think for us, there is a concern that there is a varying capacity
within the country, Belize has limited resources, limited
infrastructure, limited capacity of holding all of that and so
naturally that is a question that has to be posed. We talk about
viability from an economic point of view which a developer can argue,
but we also have to talk about viability in terms of resources. The
three ports together would probably be able to hold a capacity of over
10-12 ships, which is a very large number. We do not have the
infrastructure to support that. The case of the Port of Belize Waterloo
Gateway Commerce and Culture Project, you're looking at it being
combined with the port expansion. Because it is being packaged
together, the economics that they're discussing is a duality so it's
both products in one. I would say the Port of Belize and the work that
has to happen there has its own merits and it's a separate conversation
and the cruise is another one. Magical Belize has far more
complications in that they are talking about a port off of Sibun. It is
in essence a very isolated location, all the infrastructure that would
need to go in to support that venture is significant, not only in an
investment but from an environmental point of view. There is an
assessment and impacts that need to be explored far deeper that I think
the Environment Impact Assessment went."
And that is just a snapshot of the types of discussions that were had
between the panelists and the stakeholders present at the summit. But
according to Canto, it doesn't end there:
Linette Canto
"We're hoping that at the end of the day, our participants will leave
here feeling motivated and enlightened, feeling that they gained some
knowledge that maybe they didn't have before but also one of the main
things that will come out of this is that we're putting together a
summit document. That document is going to be shared with our key
tourism stakeholders, the general public, academia, and it will have a
lot of insights, a lot of the suggestions that were shared, a lot of
the issues that will be addressed and we're hoping that as the
University of Belize revises the national sustainable tourism master
plan that some of these ideas and suggestions will be a part of this
discussion."