Record statistics in Bzean tourism continues

Summer usually means ?slow season? for Belize?s tourism sector, but figures published today by the Belize Tourism Board might mean that train of thought is ready for a permanent vacation.

According to statistics released today by the B.T.B. the number of tourist arrivals at the Phillip Goldson International Airport for the period April to June increased six point five percent over the same period last year. It is the second quarter in a row that there was an increase in the number of arrivals at PGIA. Overall arrivals at the airport for the first half of the year rose from eighty-seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty-nine visitors for the period January to June 2003 to ninety-three thousand, five hundred and one this year.

But while airport arrivals are up, cruise tourism continues to rack up record breaking numbers. B.T.B. statistics show that for January to June alone, two hundred and twenty ships made port calls in Belize, bringing in a whopping four hundred and fifty-two thousand, two hundred and sixty-two passengers. That is more than two times the number of cruise passengers for the same period last year. June is by far the month with the heaviest traffic, with fifty-seven thousand, one hundred and sixty passengers, a seventy percent increase over the same month last year.

The Belize Tourism Board attributes the latest increase in arrival figures to its aggressive marketing and public relations campaign in key markets abroad.