Lord Ashcroft: ‘Local tourism will not be the answer’

Posted: Thursday, May 14, 2020. 7:25 am CST.

By BBN Staff: Lord Micheal Ashcroft has been in Belize for 10 weeks and has been paying keen attention to Belize’s COVID-19 response.

Appearing on Channel 5’s ‘Open Your  Eyes” show this morning, Ashcroft discussed the economic impact of the pandemic to Belize.

Ashcroft says that for small countries like Belize, the country has to do as much as it can to secure medical equipment, testing kits and track and trace the people before opening international borders.

He said that it is a difficult decision that the politicians will have to face.

Since tourism makes up more than 40% of Belize’s GDP, Ashcroft said that local tourism will not be the answer. It is estimated that local tourism represents only 10% of overall tourism in Belize and as a result is not enough to make up for the losses caused by the loss of foreign tourism.

According to Ashcroft, bigger countries can survive on local tourism but in Belize’s case tourism is the mainstay of our economy.

“There will always be some people that think that the medical health is more important than the economic health and some that believe that the economic health of  a nation is more important,” Ashcroft noted on the show.

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