BTB Invests $750,000 in New Tourism Training Institute
The Belize Tourism Board (BTB) will invest an estimated $750,000 to establish the Elevate Training Institute at St. John’s College (SJC), providing a dedicated facility to develop skills and improve service standards across Belize’s tourism industry.
The institute will offer training in culinary arts, front desk operations, tour guiding, customer service and other hospitality specialities.
BTB Director of Tourism Evan Tillett says the facility will allow the agency to expand its existing training programmes and help Belize compete internationally as a tourism destination.
“The Elevate Training Institute has been in the pipeline for at least about four years,” said Tillett. “I think we finally found the formula and the partners that allow us to really move this forward in terms of having that bona fide training institute for tourism in Belize.”
Training will involve international instructors and organisations, including the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute and the American Culinary Federation.
Tillett said the BTB has already been conducting training programmes, but the new institute will provide a permanent base for those efforts. “This now gives us that brick-and-mortar presence so that we can continue to train and develop the tourism sector,” he said.
The institute will also bring Stochl Hall back into use after the building closed in 2011.
SJC President Mirtha Peralta said the building previously housed programmes for students who had not had the opportunity to complete high school. “Fifteen years later we’re opening it to provide a different kind of opportunity for our students,” she said.