Tourism figures up, but are they accurate?

The midyear tourism statistics are out and–as we’ve come to expect–the numbers are up. According to the Belize Tourism Board, airport tourist arrivals for January through June rose ten percent over the same period in 2004, to just under one hundred and three thousand, while total overnight arrivals through all points of entry rose four point six percent to over one hundred and thirty-five thousand. And while the figures indicate that Belize’s tourism sector is booming, a number of industry leaders are beginning to question the accuracy of B.T.B.’s reporting. Some hotel owners point to occupancy rates that they say are actually declining, while other service providers say they just do not see the correlation between the statistics and warm bodies on the ground. “It’s just not adding up,” says B.T.I.A. Executive Director Andrew Godoy, who told News Five that his organisation is doing its own research in order to come up with a better measurement system. Godoy did admit that the increasing popularity of owner occupied homes, condominiums and time shares could reconcile the drop in hotel occupancy in the midst of an overall tourism increase. Other indicators, such as domestic air travel, also back up the B.T.B. data as airline operators report a steady rise in tourist travel, particularly to San Pedro and Placencia. During the same period, cruise arrivals continued to grow, reaching over four hundred and ninety-one thousand passengers, an eight point six percent increase over 2004.