Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US and, in Belize, that usually denotes the start of the tourism high season - when, as they say, the winter birds fly south.
And to coincide with that, the Belize Tourism Board today held a rare press event to provide the media with an overview on its tourism performance so far for 2025.
BTB Director Evan Tillett says that despite uncertainty in the US - where the super majority of our visitors come from - through to October this year's arrival figures are holding up well compared to a record 2024.
Evan Tillet, Director of Tourism
"From January to October in 2025 we are at a total of 448,188 overnight guests compared to last year which was 446,563 that is a total of 1625 visitors above 2024 and that places us with a.4% above 2024 which is our new benchmark year. So prior to that 2019 was the new benchmark year at a total of 503,000, that is for the complete year as well as 2024 we had a total of 547,000. So our numbers are showing that we are pretty much on par with 2024. And that is giving all of the issues we have seen in the geopolitical space where you have wars, trade wars, US immigration policy and so we have remained neck to neck with 2024."
