2006 overnight visitor arrivals up 4.5%; cruisers down 18%

The final tourism figures for 2006 are in and, not surprisingly, the Belize Tourism Board is putting its best spin forward. The good news is that overall visitor arrivals through all ports of entry rose four point five percent to reach a total of two hundred and forty-seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-five for the year. Hotel employment also rose seven point five percent and hotel revenues are up a healthy nine point two percent. The less good news is that arrivals through the Philip Goldson International Airport, perhaps the truest gauge of bona fide tourist arrivals, rose at a less robust rate of under three percent. As previously reported, cruise arrivals declined by eighteen percent, but according to the B.T.B., expenditure per passenger nearly doubled from forty-five U.S. dollars to almost eighty-eight. Needless to say, that kind of increase suggests some statistical sleight of hand. Unfortunately, none of the B.T.B.’s top brass was able to speak to us on the subject. Hopefully they will become available soon.