AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Travel Breakdown of Belize Arrivals

Given that most Belizeans living abroad live in the U.S., this means that a total of two-thirds of visitors to Belize are from the U.S.

Amazing, too, how few visitors Belize gets from its neighbors Mexico (115 million+ population) and Guatemala (14 million), or from elsewhere in the region. If you look at the numbers of overnight tourists to other CA countries -- all of which enjoy much bigger numbers than Belize -- you can get an idea of what's missing in Belize tourism promotion.

If I worked for the BTB, I know where I'd be spending the money! Of course, it's nice to go on junkets to Europe.

--Lan Sluder

I believe the "break down" is most accurately related to the industry in general. Tourism is on the decline, internationally, and prices (of all related services) will have to drop before visitor numbers increase. The fantastic world is over.

Actually, tourism is UP significantly worldwide. It was up nearly 10% in 2010 and about 5% in the first half of 2011.

--Lan Sluder

United has curtailed the frequency of my visits SIGNIFICANTLY with its recent (FREQUENT) fare increases.

I am not sure what prices need to come down, we travel the world and Belize seems to very much undercharge for accommodations and many more things compared to the rest of the world. If I want to ski over New Year's at a big hill in North America (not a mountain) it costs me $3000 minimum for a two bedroom condo, not at the foot of the hills but near it and no other amenities for three days. If we want to rent a condo in a small town in Italy near but not on the seaside it is $1000 for a week minimum plus cleaning and safety deposit. Belize does not come close to those prices. We started coming to Belize because it was inexpensive (and beautiful) many years ago and still come regularly because we love it. If you are American it may seem expensive in Belize because Americans pay a lot less for pretty much everything than us Canadians who find prices in Belize on par or less than what we pay for many things here and elsewhere in the world.

That's very interesting if you look at the pie charts, nothing looks very different. I'm interested at what Lan said....tourism is up around the world.
Maybe money doesn't have much to do with anything, and Belize doesn't need to tweak anything, or chase any particular dollar in Europe, or wherever.
Tourism is a luxury, and dependent on "What's in", or fashionable, or currently interesting.
The more important thing might be to look at, among tourists, who is going where? Maybe the Caribbean, snorkeling/scuba, rainforest ecotourism, etc; isn't the "in"thing. Maybe tourists are going to Croatia, or the East Coast of Italy, or Indonesia, or whatever...these days? Maybe Belize is wasting money on their junkets, suppositions, and complaints about expensive airfares.

It is very hard to argue that were airfares less, there would be more tourists coming to Belize. With its current set up, Belize will never compete with other locales that offer package deals. But as a previous poster said Belize should more actively market to its Central and South American friends. If there are tourist dollars available there, then Belize is much more likely to get the numbers from close by than from Europe. My perspective is that the European tourist has more cool travel options than even do Americans.

I'm a Canadian traveler and a tourist. Airfare prices are kicking my financial butt and as long as the price of oil keeps going up, I don't see that changing much. Still, for the time being, I'm paying the price because just not a "package deal" type of traveler. Sadly, that may change.