Land Borders Off to Slow Start: 10 Tourists per Day

Nicole Solano

It has been five days since the reopening of the land borders and foreign tourist are slowly trickling in.  But because these numbers are expected to gradually increase, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has been on the ground monitoring the effectiveness of the protocols in place.  C.E.O. at the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations, Nicole Solano says amendments have already been made to the protocols, based on the first week of reopening.

Nicole Solano, C.E.O., Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Affairs

“We actually have on average about ten tourists per day in both the North and the West. So that is right in line with we expected. I think I had said that we weren’t really expecting a rush on the first week. It will take time to build the traffic over the weeks ahead, similar to the airport all of the passengers don’t return on the first day or the first week. So, it will take time for the traffic to return, but we are very happy with the fact that the tourists who were waiting to come into Belize were able to enter this week.”

Paul Lopez

“Do you see any changes that need to be made after this week’s experience?”

Nicole Solano

“Yes, actually we have been monitoring very closely this week to see how everything has been working. For the most part, the protocols have been working. I know that the Ministry of Health has been out there on the ground looking and seeing what they want to adjust. So we are waiting to see from them what advice they have. We have already made an update. Earlier it was required for them to have one night stay at a gold standard hotel. But we have since required three nights stay at a gold standard hotel. I also want to clarify, gold standard hotel, some of the misconceptions at the border, somebody was asking if a back packer would stay at a gold standard hotel. I want to clarify that gold standard is really related to health and safety protocols for covid. It is not a star rating.”