At the end of September, the Belize Tourism Board put out a public call to all business-minded Belizeans for entry into what they refer to as an "Innovation Challenge: Transforming Tourism for the Future".
The BTB was attempting to encourage business ideas from aspiring entrepreneurs that could become the next successful micro or medium enterprise within the tourism industry. It's part of their plan to encourage new growth in the tourism sector. Applicants had to submit a business plan that showed key elements such as innovation, market feasibility, a financial analysis, product readiness, and mentor support.
They accepted entries until October 13th, and then, a panel of judges, representing stakeholders from the tourism industry, reviewed the submissions to select a winner.
Today, the BTB finally announced the winner of the innovation challenge. He's 25-year-old Einer Marin, a Belizean who completed his Bachelor's Degree studies a few months ago. With the help of his family, Marin recently opened a pastry business in Belize which is called " Bleu By Einer Marin".
The BTB invited the press to meet the Innovation Challenge Winner, and 7News attended:
Josue Carballo - Director
"The winning entry, submitted by Mr. Einar Marin, proves that tourism is closely and intimately linked with the food and beverage section. This gives us a greater emphasis and desire to be able to continue searching within the department, and within BTB, our support to the culinary tourism sector of Belize, so much so as to even call it a bit ambitious. But, we believe it's doable, to be able to incorporate culinary schools and concepts of that within our future training institute. So, it highlights and gives that extra importance. We'd like to thank our judges from different sectors, who gave their time voluntarily."
Einar Marin - Winner, BTB Innovation Challenge
"Bleu by Einar Marin started April 2020, the beginning of the COVID pandemic. I was still in school, finishing my bachelor's in gastronomy. I started making cakes one day at a time. We started with 1 cake a week. Now, we're doing like 2-3 cakes a day, plus bread, plus other stuff. So, it's a big - we appreciate the support from the Belizean community, the Locals, the tourists."
"I believe what's different from us is that we're using European-style techniques because I was living in Barcelona for 6 months. I was working under Oriol Balaguer, one of the best pastry chefs in the world. So, my staff and I, what we do is we try to recreate European-style pastries using local products: our chocolate from Belize Chocolate Company, and lots of other ingredients, locally sourced, the chocolate, the cocoa butter, the powder, the creams, the butter. We try to have everything local."
"We opened our business, I think, 2 weeks ago. We opened Thursday, Friday. Friday night, unfortunately, our oven died. It gave out on us. So, it's a big blow to the team. It's a big blow to all of us, especially our clients. So, with this 10 thousand, it's gonna greatly help us in purchasing a new oven. That's a big plus, and hopefully, we could fix the next one, maybe in a month or 2 months. The worst-case scenario: we have 2 now, the Best-case scenario, also."
"Nowadays, everything is social media. So, people see pastries. People see food. People see the restaurants, the cafes, and they want to just visit, especially with Latin America's Top 50 Pastry and Culinary Destinations, it's a big milestone that we want to succeed, later on, 2-3 years from now. Being able to be on that top-50 list is a dream of ours, and I'm sure that we could hit #50 one day and put Belize on the map."
As you heard, Marin is being awarded a prize of $10,000, which is to be used as start-up funds for the project. His father, who is his mentor, was also awarded a small get-away trip to Naia Resort and Spa.
