BTB and Sound Diplomacy to Collaborate

The Belize Tourism Board and Sound Diplomacy, an international music policy consultancy and global expert in developing long-term and self-sufficient music strategies, will partner to create the first-ever music tourism strategy for Belize. This strategy will assess the value of music and cultural ecosystems, identify growth areas, and produce an actionable strategy and implementation plan that delivers measurable economic and social benefits. It will also ensure that local authorities and promoting agencies have the tools they need to engage with music arts and the creative economy in general, enabling them to develop a unified public policy to support the cultural sector. It will also provide an economic baseline that demonstrates the value of music to the country, a set of benchmarks and case studies to learn from and adapt, and a music tourism marketing framework to turn Belize into a globally recognized destination. It will take place across an 8-month period, where strategies for information gathering will be set in place in the form of roundtables and interviews, and where the research team will develop benchmarking and comparative analyses. As a result, a concise strategic plan based on maximizing the value of music and music tourism in Belize around four core frameworks will be developed: music tourism development, music production, supporting artists and SMEs, and fostering live music and festivals across the country.