🎙️ RAISE and the thinking behind BTF 2025

Belize’s tourism future isn’t about increasing visitor numbers alone—it’s about improving the quality, structure, and impact of tourism.

I’m currently working on the 2025 season of Belize Tourism Futures. I’ve recorded four video podcast episodes so far, and they’ll start rolling out next month. The focus? Real conversations with the people doing the hard, creative work of building a better tourism industry in Belize.

As I’ve been preparing, one idea keeps resurfacing: People don’t produce great work by guessing. They produce it by listening, reflecting, deciding—and then doing.

That’s the rhythm behind a lot of the best work I’ve seen in my lifetime. And it’s the rhythm I’ve started calling RAISE: Research, Analysis, Insight, Strategy, and Execution.

Here’s how RAISE plays out

• Research: A Belize resort surveys its guests. Most are residents of large U.S. cities booking last-minute stays. They’re craving space, calm, and something that feels like a reset.

• Analysis: Bookings spike around full moons. Reviews mention “peace,” “disconnecting,” and “time to breathe.”

• Insight: GUESTS AREN’T BOOKING A ROOM. THEY’RE BOOKING A RESET. A QUIET INTERRUPTION IN THEIR BUSY LIVES.

• Strategy: The resort reframes its offer to “Reset in Belize”. Wellness, soft adventure, silence. Messaging tailored to professionals in need of pause.

• Execution: The campaign? The “Full Moon Reset” package. Targeted ads in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, etc. Emails that don’t shout—they whisper. A landing page that reads like an exhale.

For Belize Tourism Futures 2025, I’ve been using RAISE as a quiet framework behind the scenes

• Research: I started by listening—to tour guides, emerging professionals, hoteliers, marketers, chefs, and small business owners across the country.

• Analysis: I looked for patterns: staffing shortages, uneven development, underinvestment in service, untold cultural stories.

• Insight: BELIZE’S TOURISM FUTURE ISN’T ABOUT INCREASING VISITOR NUMBERS ALONE. IT’S ABOUT IMPROVING THE QUALITY, STRUCTURE, AND IMPACT OF TOURISM.

• Strategy: That became the backbone of the season. Every guest and topic ties back to that idea.

• Execution: One episode per week. Honest, practical, and designed to raise the conversation across the industry.

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