The Impact of COVID-19 on Belize’s Tourism Industry

COVID-19 has had a severe impact on the economy resulting in massive layoffs especially so in the tourism industry. The B.T.B. was among the first to cut back on its staff, and this week, the local Tropic Air is sending home hundreds of employees.  In some Caribbean countries such as the Bahamas and Barbados, tourism generates upwards of seventy percent of its GDP; in Belize, it contributes over forty percent. Airports and hotels remain closed, unemployment is increasing and it is not known when tourism related jobs will bounce back. But the impact extends beyond the tourism industry; the agro-processing and transportation sectors have also been battered by the pandemic.

Jocelle Stephen

Jocelle Stephen, Marketing & Industry Relations Manager, B.T.B.

“I know that in general terms, we have been impacted by the loss of revenues; stakeholders are in dire financial constraints right now. Some of them have to take out loans; they have had to lay off workers. B.T.B. itself had been impacted in that way where we had to part with some of what we call our B.T.B. family. And it is amazing because this is a health pandemic and we can feel the ripple effect in every sector of the economy, not just tourism. When you think about every other type of business entity that has been impacted because people are just spending less; they are more careful with their resources. It just shows the impact that it has had across all sectors of the economy. So it is definitely a pandemic that we have never seen in our lifetime; it is going to be quite a lesson in history for us as we go forward.”