About the Tourism Consumption Study

Tourist generates both direct and indirect demand for agriculture products. An increase of 14.6% in overnight tourism arrivals and a 3% increase in the disembarkation rate of cruise passengers in 2018 correlates to an increase in food consumption. This growth in tourism and food consumption has led to an increase in agriculture imports to meet the growing demand of the tourism market which raises concerns about the leakage of earnings.

With a tourism and agriculture- based economy, Belize has an opportunity to link the agriculture supply of 7,496 local farmersto the demand of over 1.2 million tourists who arrived in 2018.

Therefore, with a primary objective to increase the quantity of locally produced agriculture in Belize while reducing its dependence on imports, the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation launched the Enhancement of the Tourism Value Chain Study in Ambergris Caye conducted in September 2018 to August 2019.

Objectives

Quantify the importance of the accommodation sector as a consumer of locally produced Agriculture

Quantify the capacity of the agriculture sector to supply the tourism demand

Assess barriers for supply-demand linkage between agriculture and tourism

Identify interventions to reinforce linkages between the domestic agriculture supply chains and the tourism sector in the targeted tourism areas

Storymap Presentation