Last week Tropic Air announced that it would be suspending 3 of its regional flights partly because of the Barrow Administration's increase in Departure Taxes.
Well, the Belize Tourism Industry Association sent out a release today saying it stands in solidarity with Tropic Air - which is also a long time member of the BTIA. Executive Director John Burgos told us why:...
John Burgos - Executive Director, BTIA
"The reason why we sent out the press release today is that we hope that government takes this into consideration. The negative impact that is already had on one of our main players in the tourism industry. I think this is a sign that has already impacted. What if the international airlines follow suit, what if they begin to realize that it is too expensive, our flyers are looking at the numbers and then comparing to Mexico, comparing to Cuba, they are comparing to Guatemala, to Honduras, Roatan. They might say its best for me to look at the reef that is available in Roatan, let me go to Tikal and experience the Maya culture, I don't need to go to Belize because it's too expensive to go there. That is the question that we want the government to really sit back and reconsider its position on the increase and to look at how fragile the tourism industry really is and how do Belize fits with the Caribbean and with Central America. It's easy for you to move an airline somewhere else, that's one of the things that the government needs to really look at keenly,"
Government desperately needs the additional revenue from the increased tax to meet the fiscal targets it committed to in the renegotiation of Superbond 3.0.
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