Belize’s Tourism Industry Rebounds in 2022

January 27, 2023
by Larry Waight +

The latest statistics from the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) is indicating that Belize’s Tourism Industry is rebounding at an impressive rate, recording over 983 thousand tourism arrivals to The Jewel by either land, air, or sea last year.

The data indicate that overnight tourism arrivals have since surpassed the 2019 figures by a whopping 69.2 %. With such impressive growth, BTB is projecting that the industry is poised to make an even bigger comeback in 2023, as more visitors are expected to explore The Jewel. The BTB says, ‘’The latest statistics for both overnight and cruise ship tourist arrivals provide a clear and strong signal that Belize’s tourism has recovered and is now poised to achieve higher records in the New Year.’’

Those figures indicate that in 2022, 370, 524, overnight visitors were welcomed to Belize while 612, 533 cruise tourism passengers disembarked. In December alone the BTB is reporting that a whopping 40 cruise ships docked in Belizean ports, bringing with them an influx of passengers from across the globe.

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As it relates to overnight tourism arrivals by month, the country experienced the highest influx in March with 41,909 followed by April and December. When comparing by percentage to the 2019 figures, the highest growth in the overnight sector was recorded in the first portion of the year from January to April. For cruise ship passengers the highest number of passengers representing 95,730 disembarked in the month of December followed by 93,836 in March and 74,018 in November.

This considerable increase in figures which portrays the resilience in Belize’s booming tourism industry has led BTB to express how pleased they are with the industry’s swift recovery. The BTB attributed the growth to, ‘’the surge in international flights to Belize, assertive marketing in our source markets, and the strong support and collaboration from industry stakeholders,’’ which they say were the main elements for a successful year. Expressing their commitment and proactively to efficiently promoting Belize as a premier destination, for the benefit of both Belizean and international travelers the BTB says that they look forward to continuous growth.

It is no secret that Belize has been a prime tourism destination that has experienced consecutive growth in the tourism sector over the past years. Belize was among the first to open up to International Leisure Travel on October 1st, 2021, and then moved to lift all travel restrictions on July 12th, 2022.