BELIZE CITY, Wed. Jan. 20, 2021– The tourism industry in Belize is still on life-support, even with the reopening of the Philip Goldson International Airport in the last quarter of 2020. At the time of the reopening, we saw a couple of thousand tourists enter the country, which gave some local stakeholders in the industry a much-needed payday. But this has not been enough, and hopes are that the bitter winter lambasting North America at this time will prompt some travelers to pack their bags in search of warmer shores.

The president of the Belize Hotels Association (BHA), Ted Tejada, told News5 that this is the hope of those within his sector. They also hope that a rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine will bring further stability to the tourism industry at this time. “The Belize Hotel Association is going to explore with its members: how do we come as an association, as stakeholders, and contribute a little bit out of every room that we get towards a vaccine?” Tejada said.

He believes that if all Belizeans can be vaccinated, then the tourism market can be reopened to travelers from all parts of the world. While being interviewed on Wednesday, Prime Minister John Briceño underscored that the health of our people domestically will be a catalyst to the reemergence of the tourism industry.

“We can’t have a lot of sick people around, because our visitors will not feel safe; they will not want to come to Belize. And secondly, we do understand and we hear the people in the tourism industry that curfew at 8 o’clock is way too restricting for them. So, we will be working on that, to ensure that we can reduce the restriction so that when our visitors are in Belize they can move around fairly safely and can enjoy a good meal at night and not have to be rushing in their bedrooms,” Hon. Briceño said.