TIDE Tours

TIDE Tours, a subsidiary of the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment (TIDE), was established in 1999 to promote ecotourism in the Toledo District. Its primary objectives are to provide an alternative and sustainable means of livelihood for area residents, to help reduce poverty in the Toledo District by introducing more profitable economic opportunities, and to generate funding for TIDE's conservation work. TIDE Tours takes the lead in providing training to local residents to enable their participation in the ecotourism industry. One of its most successful programs has been tour guide training and certification courses. As the result of this project, TIDE Tours has assisted a number of former fishermen to move into more sustainable and more economically profitable work as tour guides. TIDE Tours has also conducted microenterprise training and other workshops to assist community members in acquiring the necessary skills to join the tourism industry. It continues to seek support for additional training and development programs for the community. TIDE Tours serves as a tour operator, providing a range of activities from day tours to package holidays within the Toledo District of Belize, Central America. TIDE Tours employs fully trained and experienced Tour Guides and Boat Captains and has over 9 years experience in the tour industry within the Toledo District. We also contract out work to small scale, local tourism businesses, to ensure the best possible quality of service for our customers. TIDE Tours offers trips to Mayan Archeological Sites, Inland Caves, Waterfalls, and Snorkeling, SCUBA Diving and Fishing trips to beautiful Caribbean islands surrounding the Belize coast line. TIDE Tours owns kayaks, snorkeling, SCUBA diving and fishing gear, and other sports equipment that is maintained to the highest standards. The existence of TIDE Tours serves to address our goal of proving to the local population that there are alternative sources of income other than their current resource-extractive and environmentally destructive practices. By providing training and education to local hunters and fishermen, we are able to slow the resource extraction, while allowing them to develop as entrepreneurs. The hardest working guides today used to be the hardest working extractive users: they knew where the fish, jaguars, and even manatees lived and were eking out a living as best they could using that knowledge. Learn more about TIDE by visiting: www.tidebelize.org