According to the International Task Force on Sustainable Tourism Development, tourism is one of the largest industries and heritage tourism is its most rapidly growing international sector. 

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Rainforest Alliance (RA), and the Central American Integration System (SICA) have developed the project “Promoting Heritage-Based Tourism:  Preserving Today’s Treasures for Tomorrow’s Generations”. This regional project is aimed at improving the human resource capacity of tourism stakeholders through training seminars focused on the ability to deliver on heritage tourism.

Late last year, three delegates from Belize were invited to a training of training workshop in Heredia Costa Rica. 

Representing Belize were Maria Vega, Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), Raymond Mossiah, Belize Tourism Board (BTB) and Abil Casteneda, International Center for Responsible Tourism-Belize (ICRT).  Upon returning to Belize, these delegates were tasked with the responsibility to train trainers in heritage tourism.

On February 22nd, the BTB, the ICRT and the BTIA coordinated a “Train the Trainers” workshop in Heritage Tourism for 34 trainers from all over the country. The workshop, hosted at the Coastal Zone Management Authority training room, had representation from non-governmental organizations, government departments, academia, private sector and also included freelance trainers.  With the training received, it is envisioned that the trainers will be better equipped to provide information to trainees in four key areas: Awareness, Appreciation, Enjoyment and Conservation of Heritage. Belize can make significant inroads in this market segment with the natural and cultural abundance of the Belize tourism product. With a well trained and equipped tourism labor force, Belize can amplify the visitor experience, which is critical since word of mouth has proven to be one of Belize’s biggest marketing tool.

Rainforest Alliance has developed a user-friendly toolkit to support the capacity building seminar.  This multimedia toolkit is based on participatory techniques to ensure that future trainers will be able to disseminate the knowledge and further enhance uptake of sustainable tourism development in Central America.
Raymond Mossiah of BTB, Maria Vega of the BTIA and Abil Castaneda, ICRT presented at the workshop.

 SICA provided funding for this workshop as it was an extension of a similar training workshop hosted in Costa Rica in 2009, and is being replicated throughout Central America.
For more information on events taking place in Belize’s tourism industry, please contact the Marketing Department at the Belize Tourism Board at 227-2420, via email:  btbb@btl.net or visit our website www.belizetourism.org