Tourist typology observations from Belize

Abstract

This examination of tourism on the island of Ambergris Caye, Belize, utilizes site investigations, questionnaires and in depth interviews in order to ascertain the various impacts on a rapidly growing Third World destination. It highlights the pitfall of treating tourists as a homogenous group in terms of their behaviour and consequent impact, and points to the utility of a disaggregated approach. The threefold typology arrived at in this paper has two major advantages. It enables a more detailed appreciation of the relationships between tourist consumption and the sociocultural, economic and physical fabric of the destination area, and thus should facilitate the formulation and implementation of more focused policies which consequently target specific issues.