When it comes to tourism, Be­lize’s goals are clear: the coun­try aims to be­come a “unique, au­then­tic, sus­tain­able, and com­pet­i­tive world-class des­ti­na­tion” by 2030. To do this, the coun­try de­vel­oped a Na­tion­al Sus­tain­able Tourism Mas­ter Plan (NSTMP), a 20-year strat­e­gy that guides in­fra­struc­ture, gov­er­nance, and in­vest­ment de­ci­sions, ac­cord­ing to Be­lize Chief Tourism Of­fi­cer Jo­sue Car­ballo.

Up­dat­ed in 2024 to ac­count for post-pan­dem­ic changes and in­cor­po­rate cli­mate re­silience strate­gies, in­clud­ing a com­mit­ment to plant one mil­lion trees and oth­er sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives, Car­ballo said the plan is built on da­ta and, more im­por­tant­ly, long-term plan­ning.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Caribbean Tourism Or­ga­ni­za­tion’s Sus­tain­able Tourism Con­fer­ence in Be­lize last week, Car­ballo ex­plained that Be­lize fo­cus­es on high-val­ue, low-im­pact tourism, aim­ing to in­crease vis­i­tor spend­ing and the length of stay.