The numbers for over-night tourist arrivals in the Jewel continue to break records and have surpassed that of 2011. We don’t know if it’s because of the “Heads in Beds” campaign, but the Belize Tourism Board released its annual tourism report that shows a significant seven point four percent boost over 2011’s over-night arrivals. Notably, March set a record; for the first time with more than thirty-two thousand arrivals recorded. The figures show that at least seventy-two percent of those overnight visitors arrived in Belize via the Phillip Goldson International Airport. But while over-night tourist arrivals have increased dramatically, cruise-ship arrivals have recorded a small dip of zero point two percent for the period of January to May. Cruise arrivals increased in January and February but decreased significantly in March with lesser dip in April and May. But what do all these figures translate to for Belize and Belizeans? Laura Esquivel Frampton of the B.T.B. tells us.

Laura Esquivel Frampton, Director, B.T.B.

“Well, simply put, it means more heads in beds which is always a good thing. More heads in beds means clearly more employment, more people in our restaurants, and more people in our souvenir shops. It really does go more than just the arrivals; it has that such a trickledown effect in our wider economy and it means a better economy for Belize.”

Andrea Polanco

“Now, the month of March; tell us what is so special about it for B.T.B.?”

Laura Esquivel Frampton

“I think we look at that as one of our highest months; March and April we tend to get very high arrivals in those months. The month of March has some of the best weather and I think that you will see that attraction to Belize coming in the month of March many of our travel agents and wholesalers will know that March and April are good months weather-wise to come here and you’ll see that push coming. You’ll also see that most of our markets are from the U.S and these are people who are coming out of that bleak winter and need an escape so you’ll start see the arrivals coming in those months for those reasons.”

Andrea Polanco

“Now in terms of the cruise ship arrivals; we’ve seen a dip in it. What would you attribute that to?”

Laura Esquivel Frampton

“Well there is a very slight dip, only point two percent in the figures overall. There are many things that can be attributed to it. I think you can see that now there is another shift happening where as in the global economic down-turn we see a lot of moving to the cruise tourism because people were able to package better and get better deals. As the economy in the U.S, which is our main market, is improving then you see that people are better able to afford those overnight adventures and I think that is the shift that we are seeing there.”

Channel 5