Belize Tourist Arrivals Up 12 Percent in First Quarter

Overnight tourist arrivals in Belize for the first quarter of 2013 totaled 92,991 visitors, an 11.5 percent increase over the 82,281 arrivals recorded during the same period in 2012, according to statistics from the Belize Tourism Board (BTB).

Belize has recorded 19 consecutive months of overnight visitor increases, according to BTB. The 28,623 air arrivals in March 2013 mark the first time in the country’s history air arrivals exceeded 28,000 visitors in any month.

Belize’s first-quarter 2013 cruise ship arrivals totaled 264,053 visitors, a 9.8 percent increase over the 238,154 visitors recorded during the same period in 2102. Valdemar Andrade, recently named BTB’s director of cruise and regional initiatives, said last week Belize will need to make improvements to its cruise ship facilities to continue to increase its cruise visitor numbers.

“We have to make some critical decisions as to moving to a port, looking at where a port would be the best place in Belize because to move beyond four cruise ships a day on any one given day we do have to think about the facilities to be able bring that amount of people on shore,” said Andrade in a 7NewsBelize.com article.

http://www.travelpulse.com/belize-tourist-arrivals-up-12-percent-in-first-quarter.html