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A new direct flight that will expand Belize' tourism channel to South and Central America was launched today. A ceremony was held at the Biltmore Hotel to mark what the Tourism sector is calling a historic occasion. The Belize Tourism Board along with its partners has been working for about 3 years to establish this connection with Copa Airlines and it was finally realized today. We spoke to the Director of Tourism, Karen Bevans and she told us how significant this flight from Belize City to Panama is to the tourism industry.

Elisa Brenes - Regional Manager, International Sales Copa Airlines

"Today we are announcing, with a lot of joy that after December the 8th, we will be flying twice a week to Belize from our Hub de Americas in Panama."

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. - Minister of Tourism and Culture

"We have enjoyed a sustained 8.7% annual increase in the overnight sector. That translates into more than double the projected growth rate expected and more than double the average growth rate of tourism in our region. It is without a doubt that here lays place one of the signal largest contributing factors to the increase of tourism overnight arrivals."

Karen Bevans, BTB Director

"It's a historic move and great benefits to the tourism industry in Belize - particularly because the South American market is what we have been targeting for a while. We want to attract those travellers, they travel particularly in our low season and our objective is to look at a twelve month tourism destination for Belize. We want to ensure that our tour guides are employed all year round. Our front line personnel, our hospitality staff, all service providers. Our hoteliers benefit from all year round, filling up the room, heads in beds. So the intention is for all stakeholders in the tourism industry to benefit and this will bring serious benefits from that approach."

The first flight is set for December 8th and the Copa Airlines will be offering 2 weekly flights from Belize City to Hub de las Americas in Panama City. This flight now offers connections to Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, even countries in Europe among many others. Another unique detail about this flight is that if you do not want to stay in Panama you can transfer to the in-transit section where you do not have to pass through customs or immigration.

And while all the possibilities and the new traffic is good, where are the new passengers going to fit? Go to the Phillip Goldson Airport on a Saturday and you'll know that both the arrival and departure areas are ram jammed. We asked the airport operations manager about it:…

Enrique Hoare - Manager of Operations, PGIA

"We have been for the past 3 years going expansion of the airport. We recently completed about 9,000 square feet of expansion to the arrival side, putting in additional baggage carousels, putting extra space for passenger comfort. And since July 1st of this year, we have also started an expansion on the eastern end of the airport which will provide at the end of the project about 20,000 new square feet of our terminal space for passenger comfort. So at the end of the day we will have a much more comfortable terminal for the passengers and users of the airport."