“Tourism industry performed well at mid-year,” says new BTB report

By BBN Staff: Belize’s tourism sector continues to see impressive growth according to the Belize Tourism Board’s (BTB)’s mid-year tourism report, which was released this week.

The BTB explained that the report was done in lieu of the publication of the annual statistics, which usually comes out at the end of the calendar year. The report was prepared to provide the tourism industry with a snap-shot of the tourism trends occurring in the overnight and cruise sectors for the first half of the year.

“The growth in the overnight sector continues in 2019 with a 6% increase over the first six months of the year. The overnight sector experienced a slight decrease in June 2019, which was the first monthly decrease in overnight arrivals in thirty months,” the BTB said

The report showed that the number of overnight visitors for the month of June 2019 was 454 less than June last year, falling form 43,392 to 43,938; however the total number of visitors for the period January to June 2019 had gone up 16,221 when compared to the same period last year, with the number of visitors going from 268,356 to 284,577.

Visitors from the United States still represent the majority of tourists coming to Belize, a commanding 67.89 percent. Visitors from Europe are the second-largest group, representing 11.19 percent, and visitors from Canada are the third-largest, representing 8.34 percent.

On the cruise tourism front, Belize City remains the second most popular destination for cruise ship visitors to Belize, despite whatever negative publicity about the city may have been circulated due to some of the crimes that happen there. The three most visited destinations for cruise ship passengers for the first half of 2019 were: Jaguar paw, which saw 61,657 visitors; Belize City, which saw 43,793 visitors; and Lamanai, which saw 24,225 visitors.

The report was shared yesterday as a part of the Belize Tourism Industry Association’s (BTIA)’s tourism bulletin.

Findings from the April 2019 LFS show that 15.6% of the employed labor force works in the tourism industry.

Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Belize ~ We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages. Your content is delivered instantly to thousands of users in Belize and abroad! Contact us at mаrkеtіng@brеаkіngbеlіzеnеwѕ.соm or call us at 501-612-0315.

© 2019, BreakingBelizeNews.com. Content is copyrighted and requires written permission for reprinting in online or print media. Theft of content without permission/payment is punishable by law.