By William Ysaguirre (Freelance Writer)
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Nov. 27, 2025
The Belize tourism high season has started, and so far the number of overnight visitor arrivals has remained relatively robust, despite the 43-day shutdown of the Federal government which affected flights from the United States, the source of 69 percent of Belize’s overnight arrivals.
The Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations and the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) reported the good news to the media at the Best Western Biltmore Plaza Hotel in Belize City on Wednesday morning, November 26. Their numbers showed that while U.S. arrivals decreased by 1.7 percent (5,228 fewer visitors) so far this year, this was offset by a 29 percent increase in arrivals from Guatemala (2,741 more visitors) and Mexico (3,163 more visitors). Other increases in visitors from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were such that overall, Belize has received 448,188 visitors so far up to the end of October, which was 0.4 percent more than the 446,563 visitors for the same period last year, and 9.3 percent more than the 408,511 overnight visitors from January to October 2019. Belizeans living abroad who visit as tourists account for 4 percent of total overnight visitors, and their arrivals increased by 123.
In the year 2019, before the onset of the COVID pandemic, the BTB’s benchmark of 503,000 visitors had been set for the entire year, and last year’s record numbers (547,000) had set a new benchmark. “Our numbers are showing that we are pretty much on par with 2024 … given all of the issues we have seen in the geopolitical space … wars, trade wars, US immigration policy,” said BTB Director Evan Tillett. If the arrivals from France, Germany and Denmark decreased slightly, overnight arrivals increased from Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Ireland.
The airlines have also increased airlift to Belize, with Spirit Airlines being the newest carrier to enter the Belize market. “In 2025, we currently have a total … we are connected to 23 cities, 7 countries, and we have now 14 airlines that are now serving our destination, and I think that speaks volumes, in terms of the work we have done on the air development front and we continue to do,” Tillett said. “In 2026 will be a significant year … it should be the greatest capacity that we will ever have … we are estimating we will have 651,529 airline seats coming into Belize,” he declared.
The top 5 passenger hubs from which visitors are originating are Houston (112,754), Miami (60,596), Atlanta (47,575), Dallas (46,757), and Los Angeles (29,658). Aside from other US airports, Belize also received 8,608 visitors from Panama, 5,181 from Calgary, 5,833 from Guatemala, 2,501 from Cancun, 1,144 from Roatan, and 963 from San Pedro Sula. “It is critical that we get new flight routes into Belize, because it makes it easier for visitors to get to Belize; but we must work with our airline partners to make sure that they are making a profit and continue to fly to the destination,” Tillett explained.
“The cost of a vacation does not only include the cost of a hotel; there is also the cost of travel … With airline rates that are still upwards of USD$650, USD$700, USD$800 round trip, then that in itself is always going to pose a challenge … The burden then falls on … the private sector of hotels, the tour operators, etc. to push our prices down even more,” explained Belize Hotel Association president, Reynaldo Malik.
Belize has received 710,912 cruise visitors so far this year, 5.4 percent more than the 674, 381 who arrived from January to October 2024. Close to 82 percent of cruise passengers disembarked on arrival, and Belize received 2 more ships re-routed from Jamaica: Carnival’s Liberty and the Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth. Tillett detailed the arrivals, “We have 48 calls for Harvest Caye and a total of 178,517 passengers to Harvest Caye. To FSTV, we have a total of 532,395 passengers, and that is with 195 calls.” That totals 243 calls this year.
The U.S. Immigration policy likely was the cause of the 8.6 percent decrease in visitors in September, which has traditionally been one of the slowest months of the entire calendar. Tillett explained, “Some people don’t want to travel because they don’t know if they will be able to get back into the U.S.”
These positive numbers are the result of aggressive marketing, in which the BTB has invested close to $20 million this year, Tillett noted. “The bulk of the revenue that focuses on our marketing efforts definitely come from through the hotel tax; and typically, the marketing budget represents just probably around … a little bit [under] 50 percent of the entire budget,” he said. “From the perspective of our marketing objective and our marketing strategy, we have different marketing agencies that represent us globally. We have representation in Europe; we have representation in LatAm, which is Mexico, Central America and South America; and we do have in Canada and the US as well,” he went on to say.
While Belizeans returning home from abroad may note the absence of international fast food franchises in Belize, the BTB does not prioritize the introduction of McDonald’s or any other international food chain. Tillett said, “The melting pot creates a fusion of the food that we prepare … a taste like no other on the planet … It does not inhibit what we do, because when people come to this country they love our food — fry jack, meat pie, tacos!”
“What differentiates us tourism-wise from many of the other countries, is that exact thing, is that you don’t find some fast food entities within the country; and people who come here are able to explore the culinary aspects of what we have,” opined president Efren Perez of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA). “Whenever we market Belize: the uniqueness of it, the uniqueness of going to Caye Caulker and not finding cars, only golf carts and bicycles. Those things are what makes us different and helps us to sell the tourism product, and places us in a unique selling point; so, I don’t believe that fast food is necessary for us to push the industry,” he added.
