Tourism arrivals to Belize continue on upward trend

Belize City, Wednesday, 11^th July 2018: The latest statistics for the middle of 2018 shows that tourism arrivals to Belize continue to register groundbreaking levels and moving on a steady upward trend. Overnight tourism arrivals in June registered double digit increases for the past three consecutive years while the first half of the year registered a 17.1% cumulative increase.

During the month of June, cruise ship arrivals registered a 57.2% increase while at the end of the first half of this year, there was also an overall increase of 10.2% in cruise visitors to Belize as compared to the first half of 2017.

The following is a breakdown of the most recent statistics, indicating that Belize continues to maintain double digit growth in overnight arrivals.

OVERNIGHT ARRIVALS REGISTERED 17% INCREASE OVER FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR

Overnight tourist arrivals increased by 15% in June 2018. Overnight arrivals in June have increased by at least 10% in each of the past three years. Arrivals in June and July have closely approached the high season numbers of January and February, particularly over the past six years. There is a 17% cumulative increase in overnight arrivals over the first half of the year

	2016	2017	2018
% change	% change	% change
Vs ‘15	Vs ‘16	Vs ‘17
Jan	38,274	24.0	38,531	0.7	48,662	26.3
Feb	37,624	18.5	39,221	4.2	45,896	17.0
Mar	43,063	10.0	44,475	3.3	55,488	24.8
Apr	30,656	11.2	38,090	24.2	40,340	5.9
May	29,709	20.2	32,146	8.2	35,726	11.1
Jun	34,268	17.4	37,690	10.0	43,389	15.1
Jul	36,212	16.9	38,628	6.7
Aug	25,865	8.3	30,799	19.1
Sep	18,115	26.9	19,508	7.7
Oct	21,726	14.7	22,656	4.3
Nov	29,510	-1.3	36,203	22.7
Dec	40,561	1.5	49,131	21.1
	385,583	13.0	427,076	10.8	269,502	17.1

CRUISE SHIP ARRIVALS FOR FIRST HALF OF 2018 EXPERIENCED 10.2% INCREASE

In June 2018, there were 20 cruise ship calls which amounted to over 73,000 cruise passengers arriving in Belize. This represented a sizeable increase of 57.2% or over 26,000 more cruise visitors when compared to June 2017. At the end of the first half of the year, there has been an overall increase of 10.2% in cruise visitors as compared to the first half of 2017. Arrivals for 2018 includes visitors from both Belize City and Harvest Caye Seaports.