AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Why Belize Suffers in the Tourism Business

Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)Belize City, Belize (BZE)$1021 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$390 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico (ZIH)$350 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)$1159 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)Panama City, Panama (PTY)$1159 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)$953 Calgary, AB Canada (YYC)San Salvador, El Salvador (SAL)$994 Edmonton, AB Canada (YEG)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$528 Halifax, NS Canada (YHZ)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$549 Montreal, QC Canada (YUL - Trudeau)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$477 Montreal, QC Canada (YUL - Trudeau)Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico (ZIH)$631 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$382 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)Mazatlan, Mexico (MZT)$651 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)Panama City, Panama (PTY)$691 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR)$388 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)San Jose del Cabo, Mexico (SJD)$618 Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)$634 Vancouver, BC Canada (YVR)Cancun, Mexico (CUN)$559 Vancouver, BC Canada (YVR)Liberia, Costa Rica (LIR)$864 Vancouver, BC Canada (YVR)Panama City, Panama (PTY)$1003 Vancouver, BC Canada (YVR)San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)$864

Jumpin' . . . I think I should go to Mexico. I can go twice.

Oh yeah . . . forgot, have only been back to Mexico once since discovering Belize. Don't care anymore for Mexico, at least the parts to which I have been.

Yes, airfare is painful, but worth it for me. It certainly makes sense as to why Belize doesn't get a lot of new tourists though, especially families.

Lots of friends of mine have wanted to take their families to Belize, discuss it with me at length, look at all my pictures, borrow (and never return) my BTB magazines, and then later, I find out that they are going to Mexico or some other AI place, because it is just to fricken' expensive to take the whole family to BZ due to airfare.

If the Belize Tourism Board can fix the cost of airfare to Belize City everything else will fix itself. It's certainly the #1 problem.

What can BTB do about that? Mexico gov't subsidizes the airline industry. Belize can't possibly do that.

Airfare to Costa Rica is about the same as to BZ, but lots of people still go there. What's that about?

Costa Rica is much less expensive for lodging, food, tours, etc.

Dallas/Cabo, all inc, air, hotel $649

Dallas/Bze, air only $744

I guess because of less population so they can't min. cost... is that true?

I have discussed this with various airline personnel.....they say that it is the "volume" of people traveling to BZE that is the issue. This does have something to do with the population. I have asked how the flight could be so much cheaper to go from say Miami to Quito than it is from Miami to Belize City. Their answer is that they can make up the costs in the number of flights/people that travel to and from there, because the population is so much bigger.

I would agree that the only way would be for GOB to subsidize the airfare, if only for one year, in order to increase the volume of traffic, then maybe the airlines would drop their rates?

I'm not sure about this, just the info I have gotten by asking around.

I understand that Belize may have subsidized USAir's airfare when it first opened a route from Charlotte. A friend of mine worked at USAir and told me that. At that time, US ran flights every day from Clt, and the prices were always below $500 (I even got a ticket for the winter one trip for $290!). I suspect if that's true, when it stopped was when you saw flights from Clt trickle down to being weekend-only.