Frankfurt Flight Marks Historic Tourism Milestone for Belize

Belize is opening a new gateway to Europe, and tourism officials believe it could transform much more than travel. The country’s first direct flight to Frankfurt, Germany, follows years of negotiations and efforts to convince international airlines that Belize is ready for the European market. Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler says the route will strengthen tourism, expand trade opportunities and make it easier for Belizean products to reach European consumers.

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism

“Man, that’s decades of a lot of hard work from many people before me. And my team and I have worked tirelessly for the last four and a half years just pounding the pavement racking up the m- miles. Sometimes you’re tired because you’re moving from city to city, meeting airline representatives. And many of them at, when we started did not know about Belize. Back then, if you asked the airline advisors they were only focused on British Airways and out of London. And I, when we got in, we said, “You know what? We have to broaden our scope. We have to go to South America we have to go to Europe. If, we have to go to Asia if we have to.” But tourists come from all over the world, and Belize is a destination that everybody should know about in a sustained way, though. We have to build consistent, sustainability programs into what we’re doing. And it I couldn’t stop smiling when they finally signed the contract because we had contracts a couple of times to sign and it didn’t happen. So when it finally happened And Discover announced slash Lufthansa announced we now know it’s real and the planning and the groundwork is happening right now and so next December 2027, we should be seeing our first European flight land in Belize.” 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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