But all that Caye food likely won't be served up for Belizeans and that's because very few of us have managed to score those coveted easter weekend rooms in any of three major destinations: San Pedro, Caye Caulker or Placencia.

President of the BHA, Alina Saldivar told us why earlier today:

Alina Saldivar, President, BHA
"RIght now although we are still very filled with tourists, I felt so bad with all the Belizeans calling hotels and trying to get rooms this easter but it's bittersweet right, we welcome our Belizeans all the time but there are so many tourists on the island and in the country on a whole. I just did a country tour with the Belize Hotel Association so we visited all of the main destinations 75% of the hotels are filled with tourists still so that only left us with a small number of rooms that we were able to offer to Belizeans this easter."

Cherisse Halsall:
"What does that mean for the Belizean rates because we know that during the pandemic it was widely accessible to go to a hotel. Is that changing?" Alina Saldivar, President, BHA
"During the pandemic, it was extremely low just because the Belizeans were the ones that allowed us to keep our operations going just to keep it going just to be able to pay our staff and not have to shut down completely. So of course they were bottom low prices. So of course now things have normalized and it's safe to say we are back to normal. Things have normalized so now the Belizean rates have gone back to usually about 50% I know its property does something different but the main thing we have seen is about 50% for Belizeans or just a lower rate for Belizeans. So the Belizean rate is there, but the availability is the problem."

"Because we are just coming back to normal so we don't even know if there is going to be a slow season so we are looking at it and we are really feeling our way through it this year just because this is our first year back to normal."

"I had an interview by another news station and I haven't seen it but I was very disappointed to hear that a part of my interview was cut where I was saying similarly that the Belizean rates just aren't there because the availability just isn't there because hotels are still full with a lot of tourists. Unfortunately, apparently, the headline was no more Belizean rates."

"I own a hotel everybody knows they can come to my hotel and get a Belizean rate but that's if there's availability so as I said if I had three hotels I could have filled it with Belizeans this weekend. I was only allowed to accept five because I only had five rooms left by the time the Belizeans started shopping because there are so many tourists still on the island."

Channel 7