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Long Overdue - Tourism Infrastructure Project for Fort George Area

Belize City, Belize, December 26th, 2009 - On December 16th at the Radisson Fort George Hotel, the Ministry of Tourism and the Sustainable Tourism Program (STP) Team shared conceptual images of the proposed Fort George Pedestrian Walk with area residents, property and business owners, and the tourism community.

Over 40% of Belize's tourists choose Belize as a destination following word-of-mouth recommendation. Improving the negative image of Belize City has been a call from the private sector for many years in order to boost overnight tourism. The goals of the STP project will include addressing this damaging picture of Belize City to create a unified attractive image of Fort Point as a local tourism destination zone, in addition to engaging existing and new tourism related businesses within the area.

The Fort George Area is the hub for cruise passengers in Belize, and with 6000 feet of waterfront, numerous heritage buildings, linkage to downtown, and a selection of prominent hotels and tourism-based retail outlets, the area has naturally evolved as a tourism destination. However, it is plagued by issues common to growing cities such as traffic congestion, poor drainage, inadequate waste management, security concerns and urban decay. To kick start the revitalization of Belize City as a whole the STP investments will focus on a core area identified as the Fort Street Pedestrian Walk with policy backing through tourism zoning legislation.

The project itself, will invest over 4 million dollars of IDB funding, to rehabilitate the area, to include Memorial Park and the streetscape of Park Streets, Cork Street, and parts of Fort Street and North Front Street to the foot of the swing bridge. All stakeholders present at the meeting expressed their support of the project and provided concrete input for the way forward. It was noted that community planning for a Tourism Village in the area was first initiated as far back as 1975 and so this project has, to use the words of community members, "been a long time coming" and is "long overdue".

To close the consultation Mayor Moya expressed the City Council's full endorsement of the project stressing the strong need for a collaborative effort between the public and private sector.

Funding for the US$15million Sustainable Tourism Program is provided by the Government of Belize through an IDB loan, and from the Belize Tourism Board. For more information about the program please contact the Project Coordinating Unit at info@sustainabletourismbz.org or visit the STP website www.sustainabletourismbz.org.