Overnight Tourism, it's the most vital sector of Belize's top foreign exchange earner.
It's why the BTB has invested much of its time post pandemic in attracting and re -attracting airline carriers to Belize. Those efforts were outlined and broken down this morning at the BTB's Airlift Development Conference, an industry snapshot of Belize's airlift accessibility and potential.
I was in the audience and tonight we're giving you a look at the present and future of Belize's connectivity to the world.
Overnight tourism interests gathered at the Biltmore this morning for a major update and reality check on Belize Airlift status. It's a look at not just the airline carriers that have returned post pandemic, but the new and the projected carriers that will hopefully bring throngs of visitors to know and experience Belize.
First on the mic was Minister of tourism Anthony Mahler:
Anthony Mahler, Minister Of Tourism
"Airlift into a destination like Belize is the lifeblood of a destination like Belize, a lot of spinoff comes from that and so if you increase your capacity into a destination like Belize then the supply chain has to respond and so my focus and the focus of our airline development committee has been on increasing airlift capacity into the country."
It's a sentiment that was echoed by Mahler's Director of Tourism, Evan Tillett, who's been on an around - the - world mission to attract more flights to the PGIA.
Evan Tillett, Director
"Airlift is the lifeblood of tourism and it's an opportunity that you can grow tourism. The more accessible the destination is through airlift it will allow more growth for the destination."
"It's like courting, you may be able to get it accomplished in a day or you might get it accomplished 10 15 years down the road but you must be committed to that process and at the BTB through the airline development committee we are committed to that process."
But getting more flights is about far more than just airplanes on the tarmac, a destination must also have the necessary infrastructure, and that includes room stock, 24-hour hotels, and even non-stop shuttle service to guarantee ample services to guests.
That's where Mahler says the BTB has also been courting developers.
Anthony Mahler, Minister Of Tourism
"We have also put a lot of energy into attracting developers to Belize to show the uniqueness of our nation and to show them the uniqueness of our people so we believe that within the coming years we will see some major investments in the hotel sector. If you look at what is happening hopefully the four seasons out on Caye Chapel will be kicked off and then there are some other investments, I have spoken to some developers over the last few weeks who are seriously contemplating putting properties in Belize City, Belmopan, the Placencia area and Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker."
"We've had over 150 meetings with close to 40 airlines all over the world and so that is how you get in, you show the Belize business case that it can work out of Europe, it can work from additional cities out of Canada and the United States. We are also injecting some energy in ensuring that we have regional capacity. Just yesterday I had a meeting with some of the ministers from Central America in Placencia and the Minister from Honduras said that it took her 16 hours to get to Belize. Now, that is something that we should say is shameful. We have only connecting to Belize, TAG and so the regional connectivity is horrible, we have been talking about it for 30 years and so we want to do something we've been talking about, talking to some of our Mexican partners to see if they can establish a hub utilizing Belize. Central America is low hanging fruit similarly to North America and South America but these things take time."
But while that's the regional picture, the feat that's expected to take more time is a direct flight from Europe. This morning Aviation expert Nico Gurwicz gave the audience the bottom line on why this is a dream deferred:
Nico Gurwicz, Vice President at Campbell-Hill Aviation
"The feedback that we have gotten from all these different airlines that we have met and let say the genera; feedback, some of them were more positive than others is that they do see an opportunity here. This is something that doesn't happen overnight and we need to follow up and continue to update those airlines. Some airlines went to the point that. We would love to do this and it's definitely something we will include in the, our short to mid-term plans. Some airlines were more on this is something we will look at longer term plans, but I think, my perspective is not so much a question of, if it will happen but more of a question of when it will happen."
And if anything is holding Belize's airline industry back it's still the after effects of the global pandemic which the BTB says are far from fully resolved.
Anthony Mahler, Minister Of Tourism
"We have a lot of challenges that we have to deal with on a daily basis that are outside of our responsibilities and so when airlines say they don't have enough airplanes, that they have backorders and when they say they have staffing issues because during the Pandemic many of the airlines retired many of their pilots so you just can't stick someone in a plane and say fly, it takes time it takes hours to build up and so there are so many issues that we are confronted with at this time still remaining from the Covid pandemic but we are optimistic about Belize and we are optimistic about the growth path for tourism over the next few years."
