A Revised Cruise Tourism Policy is Unveiled

The Ministry of Tourism unveiled a revised National Cruise Tourism Policy earlier today.  The course of action is a ten-year schedule during which specific targets will be pursued in an effort to grow the sector to an average of two and a half million visitors per annum.  This morning, stakeholders from across the travel and leisure sector gathered for the big reveal.  According to Director of Cruise, Lloyd Enriquez, the updated policy includes input from every level of the industry.

Lloyd Enriquez

Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise, B.T.B.

“So this is a revised version of the National Cruise Tourism Policy.  The first version came out in the early 2000s.  So this is a revision, an update to that policy and it basically presents a ten-year roadmap to developing cruise tourism in Belize.  It’s really a path to how we can sustainably grow cruise tourism over the next ten years and hopefully arrive at a sustainable number of about two point five million passengers per annum, and that is nationwide.”

Reporter

“So we see air traffic is bouncing back up close to pre-pandemic figures.  How is the cruise tourism industry looking right now?”

Lloyd Enriquez

“So cruise is lagging a little bit behind what the overnight sector was doing, so in 2019 we had our peak in terms of one point two million passengers.  This year, January to December 2023, we’ll be about nine hundred thousand, eight hundred and fifty to nine hundred thousand passengers.  So we’re inching back to where we were pre-COVID but not there yet.”

Isani Cayetano

“Step back a bit for us Lloyd and talk to us about the collective input in the revised national policy.”

Lloyd Enriquez

“Yes, indeed.  So this revision was done very bottom up, so we went to the stakeholders.  We went to those who have been stalwarts in the industry over the years.  Some of them have been at this for over twenty years, so they are the real experts.  They’re on the ground and they can tell us what works, what doesn’t work and what we should be aiming for.  So they were part of the cruise working group that we formed to help put this all together.  So we relied on their expertise and their experience to point out what would be most important.  It is definitely a policy borne out of inclusivity and a very bottom up approach.  They are the ones telling us how this industry should go.”