Licenses Renewal Clinics for Tour Guides Countrywide

July is quickly approaching and that means that tour guides are gearing up to have their licenses renewed. It expires annually at the end of July and this year, the B.T.B. has embarked on a campaign to take this service into the community. The tour guide licensing renewal clinic began earlier this week and will continue through to the end of the month where licensing officers will be at a community near you to process your payments and issue licenses within minutes. Director Abil Castaneda says that there are over two thousand, one hundred registered tour guides in Belize.

Abil Castaneda

Abil Castaneda, Dir., Quality Management, Capacity Development, Cruise, B.T.B.

“Every year, the end of July, the tour guide licenses expire. You get a license for a year, just like your driver’s license and all of that. This year, we started a new initiative; we are very excited about it. We are trying it out and so far, at least after the first session, it has been very successful. We are doing licensing renewal clinics. Usually the process is that the tour guide would email the B.T.B. with their application and all the documents that they need to submit and then they would wait for that to be processed and vetted and then they have to pay their fee and then they get their license. This year, we are trying out a new way. We are going to them at their destination and if they bring in all their documents – hard copy for us or electronically – they make their payment and they can get their license right there in their hands. And in fact, yesterday, we were having tour guides getting their license within five to ten minutes. They have been really happy; they’ve been very appreciate. So, it has so far been a success.”

If you are a tour guide and would like to get this facilitated process, the licensing clinic will be on Monday at the Sagebrush Church in San Pedro. On June fifteenth, the clinic will be at the House of Culture in Belize City and then at the Gala Lounge in Orange Walk on June nineteenth. In Dangriga, June twenty-ninth is the date scheduled for the clinic which will be held at Pelican Beach conference room.