AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel An open letter about the cost of airfare

going to post it here too, but ya beat me. Damn work!!

Yup, more often than not the taxes are as high as, if not more than, the airfare. We used to come down 2-3 times a year. Haven't been down in ages because flights are far too high.

You want to tax the non-residents further? Take more money out of their pockets and they'll be coming down less too.

Oh look. Belize charges half what the US does and only half of that goes to the Government.

Supply and Demand. It seems cheaper prices will only come with mass tourism and mass tourism will not ever come to Belize.

I think it would be easier to collect from non-citizens. They have the $$ and I would pay in lieu of having my place confiscated for non-payment of taxes.......I have too much invested in it.

Just so you know for the future, property taxes are paid to the local government, in SP that's the Town Council and in CC that's the village council. That money is used locally not at the national level. The same is true in the States, not sure about Canada and the UK.

Here in Calgary, the city collects my property taxes and remits about 48% of that to the provincial government. Apparently, my city government is trying to get the provincial government to change that. Frankly, I'm not sure how it would work out. If my city's schools and infrastructure are not maintainable on the money it now recieves and the provincial government's responsibilities are not maintainable on the money it now receives, how then will the province's responsibilities be maintainable if they return more money back to the city? There doesn't appear to be enough to go around, or there are major inefficiencies, or . . . But I digress.

I agree seashell... same here in Ontario. It would be easy to collect taxes either by confiscation as mentioned earlier or by detaining the non-citizen while he is trying to enter the country until the taxes are paid. I find it hard to believe that Americans, Canadians, Brits or anyone else that is wealthy enough to build/own condos and houses in Belize would avoid their share of taxes or continue to take advantage of the Belizian people.
Ron, wouldn't take much in Parliament to re-direct the taxes collected on AC or CC so the entire country could benefit. In Canada federal and some provincial taxes are collected by federal government and shared through out the country via what we call 'equalization payments'(where a rich province like Alberta or Ontario shares money with a poorer province), provincial taxes are used within the province for education, health care, infrastructure etc..

Now there is a plan. Charge "non-citizens more make them feel unwanted except for their money. How about people who might want to buy your place or a place in a new development in the future. Wouldn't the added expenses cause less real estate activity. Less buying in town to furnish their places, less other shopping and so on down the line. Which would cause less employment.

Maybe only non-citizens who can not vote should pay all the bills then the citizens could just just vote for more spending and keep spending, the money would never end. SP could become heaven on earth and everything would be fine.

Well, as we can see, no system is perfect. :^)

The old paraphrase: You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I have to agree with Phil, as I don't see what any of the "officials" in Belize can do to lower U.S. carrier airfares to Belize. Travel experts predict fares will likely not get cheaper, at least for the immediate future.

I just returned yesterday from 10 days in Belize - was in Punta Gorda, Placenica and San Pedro. I have spent almost every Thanksgiving for the last 10 years in Belize and was stunned to see the lack of travelers. All three places I visited are really hurting for tourists and the plane down was only half full. Airlines have no reason or incentive to lower airfare right now and who wants to see Belize become another mass tourism destination like Cancun?