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And indeed they are for the BTB and the Ministry of Tourism which was happy to boast about the out-turn of an especially strong fourth quarter. Jim Mcfadzean went to their press conference in San Pedro today, and here's what he found out.

Jim McFadzean Reporting

The BTB in its invitation to the media billed today's press conference as an all important one. Important because it says the country has seen record overnight arrivals during the past year, and, for the second time in history, tourist arrivals have exceeded the quarter million mark.

Manuel Heredia - Minister of Tourism
"I am happy to announce that for the first time in the history of Belize, we have attained record over-night arrivals in 3 of the 12 months of last year, namely, January, July and December of 2011. As a result of these top-performing months, I am proud say that 2011 will be recorded as only the second time in Belize's history that we have exceeded the 250,000 over night arrivals."

That essentially was the good news for the industry, but today' press conference, which was overshadowed by all the noise celebrating nomination day on the island, was also no doubt a shot of good news for both the Incumbent UDP administration and Heredia himself, who as area representative for San Pedro is running for re-election.

And riding on the latest bit of good news, the BTB says the forecast for 2012 looks even better. A major airline out of Canada has announced it intends to start flying between the two countries, starting sometime early next year.

Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Sun Wing Airlines of Canada will commence weekly non-stop dedicated services to Belize early next year. This represents 744 seats per month directly from Canada, an important step in strengthening the Canadian market, which is our second strongest market, and will only keep growing with strategic alliances. This builds up an additional 39,000 seats from North America for 2012, and represents a growth of confidence in the Belize product by our airline partners."

But with the latest incremental successes, Belize still remains a pricey destination, still out of the reach of many travelers, and has yet to reach the level of customer service experienced in other similar destinations.

Jim McFadzean
"Are we still an out-priced destination? Are we selling ourselves short when it comes to - especially in the issue of offering customer service, what we get for the kind of service - what we pay for?"

Lara Esquivel Framton - Quality Assurance Officer, BTB
"That has definitely been one of the issues that have come up from our local stakeholders as well. And that's why we are aggressively looking at the training and capacity building and these kind of field programs that will encourage our industry to look at exactly what it is that they are giving. And so, we can help them to improve."

That in mind, the country continues to benefit from great worldwide reviews, the most recent, when Trip Adviser announced that the Phoenix Resort in San Pedro was the World's best hotel.

Yanick Dalhouse - Marketing Director, BTB
"As you may recall back in 2008, Belize made a huge international splash when the Today Show broadcasted live for 2 days from Belize. For it's feature, "Today goes to The Ends of the Earth" special. This morning show was seen by millions people across North America. During that same year, our new grand ads debuted in several international magazines and National Geographic - we had an ad that scored the highest in brand recognition of all of their readers among all of the ads in the magazine. Additionally, all PR efforts that year resulted in nearly 300 stories worldwide about Belize, and when you equate that into advertising dollars, it reached over 500 million people."

And so, as the Country struggles with its infrastructure and the industry strives to improve its performance on the frontlines, any improvement in its performance over the previous years, in the current economic climate, is reason to celebrate.

The total overnight arrival figure for 2011 is 250,263 and that is the second highest on record after the peak in 2007, which was just before the global economic crisis period.

It is only the second time in Belize's history that the overnight tourism arrival figure has exceeded 250,000 visitors.