In commemoration of Women’s Month, the Belize Tourism Board is hosting a special event honoring the outstanding women in tourism. The, “She Leads – We Celebrate” forum was held at the Biltmore Plaza and features talks from several prominent women in the industry. Discussions at the forum will focus on topics such as leadership, innovation, and gender-based barriers. Among the women highlighted today was Timotea Mesh, Manager of the San Antonio Women’s Cooperative. Mesh told the story of how the business started off with members who were hosting visitors to their community, as well as the challenges they encountered along the way.
Timotea Mesh, Manager, San Antonio Women’s Cooperative: “The San Antonio Women’s Collaborative, then we have formed a little package where people can come over, they can learn about the Mayan Yucatec culture. Together with the culinary experience, we have pottery making and basically that is what we do and we are supporting women where they can make their little art and bring it to the shop and we can sell that and that goes directly to the families back again. The challenges that we face is because we’re living in a rural community. We are away from where the tourism centers are and then people, we are in a remote area. So those are one of the challenges as when we are seeing for business. San Antonio is located right on the way going to Caracol Road, that was one of our, that we saw that was one of our strengths that we could see when we look at challenges. We still have strength as well. So people pass by but then another challenge that we have is that we are working with housewives. We’re working with moms. We’re working with these ladies that have children, that have farmers as husbands. So that requires a lot of time for women to be at home. So we have to learn how to work with these kinds of ladies.”
Another woman highlighted at the event was Megs Yearwood, a co-founder of Barefoot Services, a 20-year-running family business in Placencia. Yearwood says that the business started off as the only car rental company in Placencia before the peninsula had paved roads.
Margaret “Megs” Yearwood, CoFounder, Barefoot Services: “The plan back then, I was a 21 year old and I did not have a plan. I didn’t write a business plan. The opportunities just presented themselves. I’m always a person looking for opportunities to better my life and the family that I come from I have no lawyers in my family, no senior accountants. So for me, it was organic. I worked at one hotel in Placencia and at that point I realized, oh, there’s a way to literally make a living here and meeting a superior that encouraged me to learn and apply myself I think that also helped. So throughout my career, I’ve always had women in my corner. My first website I built in my apartment with a woman. So I didn’t really have a plan.”
The BTB has also been running a social media campaign, highlighting women in tourism.
