INCREASING BELIZE GOVERNMENT TAX REVENUES FROM TOURISM, TWO INFRA STRUCTURE KEYS.

THERE ARE TWO KEYS TO INCREASING TOURISM TAX REVENUES FOR GOVERNMENT. THE FIRST IS CONTINUOUS BUDGETED BEACH RECLAMATION ON CAYE CAULKER AND AMBERGRIS CAYE. EVENTUALLY CAYE CAULKER SHOULD HAVE A BEACH ALL THE WAY AROUND THE ISLAND PERIMETER. THE SECOND INFRA-STRUCTURE ITEM, IS A DOCK FOR CRUISE SHIPS AT PUNTA YCAICOS DOWN IN TOLEDO DISTRICT.



B.T.B.’s stats show Tourist Arrivals up
Feb 15, 2012
B.T.B.’s stats show Tourist Arrivals up

The Belize Tourism Board today announced the statistics for tourist arrivals in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the figures are record breaking for overnight visitors. There were a total of fifty-seven thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four overnight visitors, which reflects a six point five percent increase when compared to the same period in 2010. December’s twenty-six thousand nine hundred overnight tourists also made history. Arrivals via the Philip Goldson International airport were at a record high and for the most part, have shown a steady increase since 2008. In the fourth quarter of 2011, forty-two thousand and thirty-four airline visitors were recorded, an increase of nine percent compared to 2010. As for cruise ship arrivals, the figures were inconsistent throughout October, November and December 2011. In comparison to 2010, October saw a twenty-five point nine percent increase with thirty-nine, nine hundred and fifty-nine cruise visitors. November had a record high of ninety-two thousand, four hundred and sixteen, which is a thirty-two point one percent improvement. Meanwhile, December had a decline of eleven point five percent with ninety-six thousand, three hundred and sixty-seven. But according to the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia, the industry has seen an overall increase in arrivals of almost twelve percent since 2008. He addressed the record breaking figures at a press conference in San Pedro today while the Belize Tourism Board’s Director of Quality Assurance, Laura Esquivel Frampton, spoke on the initiatives in place to keep arrivals on the increase.

Manuel Heredia

Manuel Heredia, Minister of Tourism

“For the first time in the history of Belize’s tourism, we have attained record overnight arrivals in three of the twelve months of last year; namely January, July and December of 2011. As a result of these top performing months, I am proud to say that 2011 will be recorded as only the second time in Belize’s history that we have exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand overnight arrivals.”

Laura Esquivel Frampton

Laura Esquivel Frampton, Director of Quality Assurance, B.T.B.

“The cruise sector has done very well for us even when our overnight sector was taking a dip. So we have the zone, we have to continue our negotiations with the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association and of course capacity building for our local stakeholders in the cruise sector. We are also working on—and there’s going to be training in March in cultural tourism for persons who are offering cultural tourism products, giving them training and also a small grants program that is coming through the IDB project and looking at health and safety standards and accompanying training throughout our sector. We also have to focus a lot on capacity building and training for our industry. We’ve revamped our tour guide certification course and should be giving that to the industry a little later this year so that we can begin new programs that focus on interpretive skills. Introduction of a new tour operator course; right now there is no course offered to persons who operate tours so we have created that groundwork and we are ready to roll out our first training in the summer. And we’re looking at quality enhancement training, customer service training; wait staff, bartending front desk and key to all of this is to get more trainers into the system.”

Tourism Minister, Manuel Heredia also announced at today’s press conference that starting early next year, Sunwing Airline of Canada will begin weekly direct flights to Belize.