Belize Wants to Attract Mexico, Central America & Caribbean Travelers

Anthony Mahler

Just last week, we reported on a visit to Belize by tourism officials from Mexico. The delegation was headed by Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco Marquez, who met with Minister of Transport Rodwell Ferguson, as well as Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Relations Anthony Mahler and his team. The visit was to improve tourism relations between both countries and explore potential investments. In looking at the possibility of tapping into the Mexican market which has one hundred and twenty-eight million people, Minister Mahler says that they are also focusing on the Central American and Caribbean regions

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations

“Mexicans dive and snorkel a lot too, you know, from our research. I think the entire Central America and Mexico is underserved in terms of tourism here in Belize. Accessibility is a problem and direct flights; kudos to Tropic Air for putting in some of those flights. Those flights have helped. We only get seven thousand Mexicans coming to Belize overnight and we believe that we can grow that number exponentially, but there are no direct flights from Mexico City or any major city in Mexico other than the Tropic flight from Cancun. And that caters to mostly tourists coming in from other parts of the world, mainly Europe and Asia. And so we have been talking to a Mexican airline and we are very close to getting one of them to come to Belize.”

Duane Moody

“Outside of the Central American region, we are also thinking about maybe the Caribbean, seeing how that could possibly happen too?”

Anthony Mahler

“We are a different kind of product and all Caribbean people who have come to Belize have been amazed. In fact, when I took the Minister of Tourism from Mexico to fly over the Blue Hole and he and his delegation were in amazement of what they saw. Same thing when Caribbean people come to Belize and they see the diversity and the archeological sites and we have the reef, San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Placencia, Hopkins Seine Bight, all of these places, Corozal, the Cayo District, Mountain Pine Ridge, they are in awe of what we have. None of those islands, none of them have the diversity like we do. But accessibility is an issue again. Most of them have to go through the United States, go through Miami and the flights from Miami are very expensive right now. That’s something that we are working on.”