The Multilateral Investment Fund, the Belize Tourism Board and the Belize Tourism Industry Association this morning signed on to a US$833,000 project for capacity building for micro and small businesses in the tourism industry. It's money earmarked for the small vendors and operators who want to get in on the tourist industry. Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith says this initiative will go a long way in improving services offered by small businesses to the tourism industry.
Godfrey Smith, Minister of Tourism
"IDB will provide, through the Multilateral Investment Fund, $1 million, and basically in a nutshell the money is to be spent on building the capacity of very small businesses, small and medium enterprises, that deal in the cruise tourism industry. The three components are building the managerial capacity of these small businesses, helping them to be able to operate as a small business; helping them to identify products to be marketed for sale; and tying them into the supply chain because they might know how to operate their business, they might know what products to sell but as you aware these industries have a system and you have to be able to tie them in. So that's basically what the project is designed to do. The project will be steered really by the BTIA. I get the sense though that eventhough these people are small and grassroots, they understand the potential of the industry and they want to be a part of it very much."
Andrew Godoy, BTIA Executive Director
"The project is geared towards assisting micro and small enterprises and CBOs within the tourism industry and most of these will be BTIA members and, or, affiliated sector association members. So directly they will benefit by being a part of the project, being integrated into these tourism circuits that the project is geared towards establishing."
The project is expected to benefit 500 micro and small businesses and community based organizations in improving their service and product quality.
