P.G.I.A. Remains Closed; Can the Situation Change Soon?

Marvin Manzanero

The tourism sector continues to plummet as Belize remains locked off from international visitors. There is no set date for the reopening of the international airport and worse so, border entry points as the number of cases of COVID-19 continues to rise in Mexico and neighbouring Central American countries. Even though domestic tourism is now being allowed, revenues are falling short and put at under three percent. After the announcement was made by PM Barrow that the reopening of the P.G.I.A. on July first will be pushed back, a group of hoteliers met with the PM and Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero to see what can be done to change the situation.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“It’s only a small group of hoteliers that came to ask and to look at possible options in terms of when you open the airport, throwing out a tentative date of July first. I think the one common agreement we had—we offered some suggestions—the common agreement we had is that they were going to give us a paper that would highlight how they think it could happen, how we could move this agenda forward in context of the COVID-19 situation, understanding that neighbouring countries and the U.S. itself are having increasing number of cases. Understanding that we had initially thought that by the ending of May, June, we would have had rapid tests available; those are not available. So in light of that, we said okay can we try to draft up a document of how the flow of people arriving would be. I don’t think we have a clear straightforward answer in that regard.”