And now to Belmopan...
Day three of the budget debate started with the area rep for Pickstock, Anthony Mahler. As Minister of Tourism, he spoke about the numbers for 2024 so far, which have exceeded the 2019 record of overnight stays. And today he gave his projection for the revenues that he believes tourism will rake in this year.
Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"We have already recorded growth of over 16% in overnight arrivals for the first two months of this year. The month of January saw an impressive 67,000 arrivals, making it the highest January ever. This stellar performance continued in February with an all time high of over 59,000 in arrivals. We expect a 10% increase in tourist arrivals for March with projections of over 60,000 visitors for this month. This would be a first for tourism in Belize and it would be a new high for tourist arrivals for the jewel. At this pace, we project that tourism will generate revenues of around 1.4 billion dollars this year. This is 200 million dollars more than we did in 2023. I think it will be more than that too. One of my professors when I used to go to university told me you bring down the number a little so when you do more you look better so I think it will do better."
"There is demand, we have days throughout the year with requests for more than 5 ships in a day. But we cannot expect fully take advantage of these opportunities in cruise tourism without a berthing facility in the Belize District. The longer we take the more the larger ships will continue to bypass Belize as they're doing now. To prudently manage the cruise sector, I commissioned the modernization of the cruise tourism policy in late 2022. This work which was completed in 2023 highlights the need to prioritize environmental stewardships, community engagement, and resilience as we move towards the target of 2.5 million cruise passengers by 2033."
