Three Months of Low Tourist Arrivals During Sargassum Invasion

Placencia’s beaches are being overwhelmed by sargassum, leaving stretches of the shoreline virtually unusable and numerous concerns about the impact on tourism. Representatives from the Belize Tourism Board met throughout the day with the Placencia Village Council to identify solutions that could work for the peninsula. Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler says the situation is serious and understands the frustration firsthand, having once checked out of a hotel abroad because of a similar buildup. Tourist arrivals have declined over the past three months, and while Mahler acknowledges that global issues are also affecting travel, he says sargassum is contributing to the downturn.

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Sports

“For me, and I’ve flagged this enough in cabinet, just like the cost of living, it is a crisis. It has become a health crisis. It has become an environmental crisis, and it has become an economic crisis in terms of, if you ask coastal resorts and businesses, they have to change out TVs, they have to do this, they have to do that, and so we’re talking to some of the IFIs to ensure that we can try to raise enough money. Part of the process for fighting Sargassum is what systems work best in Belize, and so that is done by trial and error, but we believe that we’ve found a way of fighting it. Now, remember, Sargassum inundates us 24 hours a day, right? So we found a machine that can work 23 out of 24 hours, and that has to be connected to other, obviously, infrastructure. Seventy percent of the people who come to Belize come for some marine activity, and so coastal communities are important to $4 billion going into the economy. And if we don’t, I have been to Tobago and to be honest, I checked out of a resort because the Sargassum was this high, and you couldn’t even breathe, right? So how do you want to enjoy a vacation when you’re experiencing that, no? And so for us, the last few months have been rough. It has, we’ve taken a beating from Sargassum, but there are other issues.”

 

Mahler is also proposing to use one-point-five percent of the proposed three-point-five percent hotel tax increase for sargassum mitigation measures.

 

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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