Ambergris Caye Belize Resort Development - Department of ...

9.7.4 The San Pedro Town Council
The San Pedro Town Council is the main entity of local government on the island of Ambergris
Caye, Belize. Besides day to day planning of the Council, the main duties of the council
members include the following: Finance, Economic Development, Investment, & Special
Events; Foreign Relation, Public Relations & Community Education; sanitation, solid waste,
public works and the environment; Small Business Initiative and Tourism and; parks,
playgrounds beautification & traffic.
9.8 Belize Tourism Policy 2005
In 1998, the first ever National tourism Strategy Plan was developed for Belize. The plan was
prepared with the goal of developing a strategy and action plan to stimulate economic growth
while protecting the country’s environmental and natural resources and ensuring benefits to
locals. The policy adopted focused on ecological-cultural tourism (ecotourism). The 2005
tourism strategy builds on the 1998 strategy refined to fit today’s global tourism market realities
and potential.
The Strategy include policies to be adopted and designed to improve the quality of life for locals
and communities, coordinated government and industry sector participation, integrated national
economic, social and cultural benefits, a meaningful balance between the main tourism (stay
over) and cruise sectors and ensuring that Belize’s destination position in the global tourism
sector is not compromised.
The Belize Tourism Policy guides the development of all types of tourism. In essence the new
tourism policy is predicated on policies to also look at significant changes in the external
environment. These include but are not limited to: i) increased cruise tourism forecast; ii) the
impact of cruise tourism on Belize’s eco-tourism sites and; iii) increasing competitiveness Belize
faces globally and regionally.
9.8.1 Tourism Master Plan
The 2005 Belize Tourism Policy addresses the need for the development of a new “Tourism
Master Plan” as the industry is “facing many development challenges involving land and marine
use, infrastructure, resource use and visitor impacts.” The Tourism Master Plan will build on
results of the Phase I policy document and will be guided by priorities and directions established
within the document. Primarily, the Master Plan will look at (but not be limited to) area plans
from a tourism perspective integrating considerations to quality of life for locals; development of
carrying capacity limits at the various sites; policies relating to waste management, land use,
security and investments and assisting local communities to develop community tourism
products.
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