And the Belize Hotel Association's president Reynaldo Malik confirmed that the sargassum was a contributing factor to a drop in overnight stays in 2025. Malik says our neighbors experienced the same because of the broad footprint of sargassum.
Reynaldo Malik, President, Belize Hotel Association
"The sargassum is a double whammy. One, it makes potential travelers want to stay away from our destination, but then it also requires a lot of, a lot of cash. You need human resources to remove it. So you have to pay the human resources. You need heavy equipment to help cart away. So you need to pay for that, etc.. And so it's a double whammy. It impacts business where it lowers business, but also creates more expenses at a time of the year where hotels, for the most part, are already going to see lower business levels. So it's a double whammy when you talk about sargassum. But I always point out that with sargassum, Belize is not alone. We're not the only ones that are affected by sargassum. So Tulum, Cancun, Playa, Belize, right down the coast everybody Honduras, Costa Rica, everybody has sargassum, right? So it's how you deal with it. It's whole it's how you approach that situation."
