Victoria Street Transformation Turns Heads Downtown

The Belize Tourism Board is giving Victoria Street a fresh new look, and a fresh new start. This neighborhood has long been overlooked, with little economic activity despite its potential. But if you’ve passed the intersection of Victoria and North Front Street lately, those colorful structures popping up have probably caught your eye. So, what’s happening there? Turns out, it’s all part of a revitalization effort, and yes, it’s in the Pickstock constituency, represented by Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler. We reached out to the Belize Tourism Board to get the details.

 

Evan Tillett, Director of Tourism

“It’s a fish market that will have restaurants there that you can buy your fish and take it to the restaurant and get it fried and eat it right there. It’s something that’s popular within the Caribbean destination. In Barbados they have this place called Oistins where you can get fresh fish and that sort of thing. It’s the same concept but on a much higher level. And like the CEO says, it adds value to the Belize City product and it’s a part of the entire sustainable tourism masterplan to continue to develop Belize City.”

 

Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association

“We’ve talked about the overall economic impact that tourism has as well as improving the quality of life and so projects like this are designed to give smaller entrepreneurs the ability to bring their product to market, one, and then uplift themselves, their families, their employees, etc. So it’s a wholistic approach using tourism as the main driver to empower others to do better.”