B.I.M.F.F.: An Economic Boost for San Pedro  

The Belize International Music and Food Festival had its hiccups, but it was a significant boost for business in San Pedro. While the official figures are yet to be released, the preliminary report is that the event provided economic stimulus to the town during the tourism off season. News Five’s Marion Ali spoke with the Chairman of the Belize Tourism Industry Association’s San Pedro Chapter, who said the event benefited everyone economically. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The Belize International Music and Food Festival has been described as hugely successful from an economic standpoint. The event is said to be on par with San Pedro Lobster Fest. Chairman of San Pedro’s BTIA, Nicholas Scavone tells News Five that the population literally doubled over the weekend.

 

Nicholas Scavone, Chairperson, B.T.I.A., San Pedro Branch

“I had heard that it was fifteen thousand people attend the music fest. The population – the resting population of the entire town of San Pedro, right? That was there, so you had our fifteen thousand plus fifteen thousand that came in. Even though it was raining, people were out there in the rain dancing. There was food, there was music. All the restaurants were full, the nightclubs were full, the town was full; the suppliers and the grocery stores had just gotten their supplies that week, and already you could see the huge dent that the local uptick in tourism has put on that. So it’s really extended our season right through up to the end of July. It was a tremendous success and a tremendous economic push for our island.”

 

Preliminary reports are that hotel occupancy in San Pedro was significantly higher for people in that industry. Scavone says the festival, along with other major events are the reasons for the increase.

 

Nicholas Scavone

“We had a lot of people from the mainland, a lot of local people came in and enjoyed the time, taking advantage of the lower rates, and we did have quite a number of tourists that came down. Whether they came down specifically for the music fest or not, I cannot be sure but July, in general, saw a good uptick for I know we had some for lobster fest. We know there’s a traditional amount of people that come down for the lobster fest. We did have people that came over in some quantity for the fishing tournament that we have here and I can only think that the music fest added to that attraction, which kept them here, perhaps, but occupancies in the hotels were significantly higher than we normally would expect for this time in July.”

 

According to Scavone, the infusion of economic activity in San Pedro during the off-season is welcoming because it created good business for everyone who rely on tourism.

 

Nicholas Scavone

“A lot of it goes into the pockets of the hoteliers, the restauranteurs, the taxi drivers the people who sell the crafts, the bars Bowen and Bowen for selling their products, the wholesalers, the distributors, the grocery stores, because people come down and everybody stops off at the various grocery stores in there filling up. The benefits from that, just all-around vendors, all that money goes into their pockets. And of course the flow through from that is the increased level of GST we get, the fact that the B.T.B. gets more hotel tax coming in on the 9 percent of the uptick in occupancy.”

 

Estimates of revenues to the Belize Tourism Board have not yet been released. Marion Ali for News Five.