Tourism Minister Optimistic as Belize Sees Record Visitor Numbers

Despite a few bumps in the road, Belize’s tourism industry is showing strong signs of growth—and the outlook for the rest of the year is promising. Minister of Tourism Anthony Mahler shared that the country saw record-breaking visitor numbers in January, February, and April of this year. March was slightly down, but only because Easter fell in April this year, unlike last year when it boosted March’s numbers. Mahler recently met with major airlines and the U.S. Embassy, and the message was clear: an uptick in travel to Belize is expected after June. 

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism

“I had a meeting yesterday with the US Embassy and we had a frank; open discussion and I believe that this is an opportunity for us. I think things are going to settle down. Last week Friday, I met with some of the major airlines that come to Belize and all of them are saying that they’re expecting an uptick after June. For the first four months of this year, we’ve seen record numbers, except for March, whereby last year March you had Easter in it and this year, Easter fell in April. And so, January was a record month, February was a record month, March, we were marginally down and April we had a record month. So, now it’s how we position ourselves. I believe the Mexican market is important. The Canadian market is important. South America is going to be important and the regional aspect of it. But air connectivity is also important, so we have some contracts on the table and hopefully we can get those worked out before the end of the year whereby we have new carriers coming into Belize.”