Local Tourism Won’t Make Money, But Will Likely Boost Morale

Stewart Krohn

As you know, with the ease of restrictions, domestic tourism is being promoted as a first step to open up the industry. Stakeholders are offering great deals for Belizeans to travel across the country. Now, domestic tourism provides not more than ten percent of the revenue generated by the industry; international tourists make up ninety percent.  B.T.I.A.’s Second Vice President Stewart Krohn says that going into the weekend, local tourism won’t make money, but is likely to boost morale.

Stewart Krohn, 2nd Vice President, B.T.I.A.

“Personally, as a hotel operator, I think this upcoming three-day weekend I think the hotels that are open will do some much needed and much anticipated business. But I look at it more of as a morale booster; so it will be bringing back some of our laid off staff and other hotels that are opening will do the same. And that’s great for staff morale, it gives people hope. Three-day weekend; that’s great. Our next three-day weekend isn’t until September. So we don’t know what kind of local business will be done between now and September. I applaud the B.T.B. for pushing it, it is a good idea, but I think from an economic standpoint, it is going to be somewhat marginal. There may be certain areas, I would suspect Caye Caulker might get a bigger boost out of it say than San Pedro. But we are dealing with uncharted waters here and we won’t know until we find out. In this whole virus, there is a lot of magical thinking going on. We see it certainly when we turn on the news in the United States. But hoping for something and thinking that something is going to happen, does not make it happen. If a vaccine was developed tomorrow; that would be the most fantastic thing in the world. But can you bet the survival of your business on a vaccine being created and manufactured and distributed globally tomorrow? I think we have to be realistic about that. And I think the realistic approach is that even if you open the airport tomorrow, we really don’t know who will come.”