Visitors Must Purchase Travel Health Insurance

In February, all visitors to Belize will be required to buy Belize Travel Health Insurance. The Belize Tourism Board states that the mandate is to protect travelers against medical and other expenses incurred if they test positive for COVID-19 during their stay. The cost will be eighteen U.S. dollars, and the plan covers up to fifty thousand dollars in medical expenses related to COVID-19 treatment for a period of twenty-one days. It will also cover quarantine lodging expenses of up to two thousand U.S dollars. News Five spoke to Chairman Evan Tillett about this new move.

Evan Tillett

Evan Tillett, Chairman, Belize Tourism Board

“There is a new travel insurance that will be implemented on the fifteenth of February. The policy covers a visitor if they get sick in the country. The insurance costs eighteen U.S. dollars. You have an average of fifty thousand U.S. Dollars for a period of twenty one days. It also provides trip cancelation coverage, so what it does is to protect the hotel sector as well as protect the guest, in case of the guest can’t come and we are operating in a pandemic, an Omicron environment. What we are seeing is that in some cases, guests test positive after they already spent their vacation, and the public health regulation says that it is at the cost of the visitor. A lot of times these visitors don’t have the monies to pay for it. So, having the insurance provides a level of coverage, a level of safety, for the guest and for the industry”.

Paul Lopez

“Are there any comparisons to this type of approach in countries in the region, across continents?”

Evan Tillett

“Of course, Belize is late to the game in terms of travel insurance. Jamaica has a travel insurance program, Turks and Cacaos, Dubai, so it is nothing new for the tourism sector. Given the fact of the importance of the tourism sector in Belize, giving forty percent of G.D.P., it is important that we protect our industry, our locals, our guests.”