Planning for Tourism in Belize

Abstract

T OURISM has emerged as a significant economic and social activity in many parts of the world during the past two decades. Geographical research on tourism has been wide-ranging, but focused on existent patterns, processes, and effects.1 Preparation of development plans for tourism has been largely the responsibility of professional planners, economists, marketing consultants, and architects. The input from geographers has been meager, although there is considerable scope for contributions from them, especially in resource evaluation and site selection and development.2 Indeed the absence of a spatial perspective, which geographers could supply, has been a factor in the failure of some tourism planning.3 This assertion does not suggest that all tourism plans have lacked a spatial perspective or that effective evaluation or site-selection procedures have not been devised.4 The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the contribution of geographers in tourism planning by describing the preparation of a tourism-development program for Belize. Belize is a newly independent country on the Caribbean coast of Central America (Fig. 1). Bounded on the north by the Mexican state of Quintana Roo and on the south and west by Guatemala, Belize has an area of 22,965 square kilometers. The 1980 census recorded a total population of 145,000, almost one-third of which was concentrated in Belize City. Other concentrations were Belmopan, the capital, and the district centers of Corozal, Orange Walk, San Ignacio, Dangriga, and Punta Gorda. The population comprises diverse groups of people, with the main ones being creoles, Gar-