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First we spoke to the President of the Belize Hotel Association Lisa Carr-Caceres. She admitted that since January, tourists specifically those traveling in groups for weddings and family trips, have been cancelling their bookings, as well as pregnant women. Carr-Caceres told us that while those are significant cancellations, it will not affect the overall business at their member hotels. She explained it's all about keeping the guests informed and also about training staff.

Lisa Carr-Caceres - Pres. Belize Hotel Association
"The reports that we have received have not been so much individual cancellations. Unfortunately yes there have been more of reports group cancelations, because allot of times groups may have just 1 person responsible for the group so they don't want to run a risk or maybe insurance issues whatever. So, there is more that have been reports of group cancellations which actually we take that very seriously. We do not want that because those are big cancellations. So yes we have received reports of some groups cancelling, very few individual cancellation and most of them are probably related to someone who is pregnant. We have to remember that this is not just a certain individual case. We have dealt with mosquito carrying diseases before we all know that you shouldn't have small places with still water, if possible try to have insect repellent in your hotels or in your rooms available for guest to use or purchase, advice your guest to use a long pants or long sleeve shirts. Just the general things that in the past we have used that's what we would recommend in the future. By keeping your business well informed, your staff - you need to train your staff how to answer questions to the guest maybe asking and never deny that there is a case of it into the country, but rather just let people know what we are doing about it and we keep moving forward."

Carr-Caceres told us she does not anticipate that any resorts or hotels will close down as a result of Zika. As she said, hoteliers will manage well. She also told us they are in constant contact with the Caribbean Hotel Association in dealing with this public health issue. As a final note, Carr-Caceres added that they are in the low season so that's one reason hoteliers aren't feeling any major blows.

Now, the BTIA reiterated that position. Executive Director John Burgos told us today that there has been no major decline in overnight stays and cruise arrivals, in fact, between November last year and January 2016, there has been an increase in arrivals. Burgos also told us that the focus should be on staying updated on what is happening in country and more importantly, protecting yourself.

John Burgos - Executive Dir. BTIA
"We already know that just based on the assumption that the possibility of having Zika has already affected. We are at a very minimum level. If you look at the figures from the Belize Tourism Board of November, December, January, they have all showed recorded numbers in terms of overnight stays and even the flights and arrivals. So in terms of the role BTIA play, we try to work closely with Belize Tourism Board, with the Ministry of Tourism also the Ministry of Health. The key thing is that we need to ensure that there is full awareness of what the Zika is all about and of course preventative measures that can be taken by the public, not only by the tourist coming into Belize because this is a domestic issue that can affect the tourist. But we have to look at how we can prevent it locally. At this point I believe it's too premature to see what effect the official confirmation and there is actually one case of Zika - it's too early, but I remain positive that it's not going to affect that drastically. We are going to see a similar effect as to what the Sargassum did to the tourism industry last year because based on the Sargassum we had a lot of cancellations as well from our members. I'm not sure how soon the Zika is going away or if it's here to stay, but I do believe that the travelers like any other risk, malaria, HIV you could name the different diseases that you are going to get expose once you travel outside of a country into other countries, the statistics are there, now Zika added into that, well it has to be taken into consideration but I think that presently our government is doing a good job in terms of the preventative measures being taken and of course being very proactive in getting the right tests done to ensure that we have accountability of who has Zika."

Burgos told us that he has traveled to all the neighboring countries recently and is traveling to Guatemala soon and he isn't bothered by the presence of Zika one bit. In terms of the tourism numbers, tourist overnight arrivals went up from 30,858 in January 2015 to 38,274 in January this year. That is over 7,000 more tourists traveling to Belize in January of this year.