Northern Canuck and anyone else that thinks Belize can do significantly more. Have you read the entire thread. All your points are answered and confirmed and I've explained why Belize is incapable of Government subsidy as Mexico etc. can offer. Belize wants tourism. It is an Industry run by the stakeholders with little help from Governmnet - other than the use of the Hotel Tax - and it is self sustaining. I don't know the visitor numbers to other places to compare an industry country vs country. I'd hoped someone like Barb or Lan Sluder or perhaps TravelQueen would give some extra info on this as well as airline breakdowns and potential reasons it costs so much more.

Pulling numbers from the sky for an example. If just a 15% subsidy was given to the airlines as an incentive on an $800 average fare, based on our typical annual visitor count it would bring a bill of US$21M. We dont have enough schools, roads, hospitals, electricity, food, water etc etc for our population at the moment - where in the hell would they find this amount of money. The Whole Country has a little over 6000 rooms - less than one Hotel in las Vegas. If that cost was transferred to stakeholders on each room it is an annual bill of US$3,400 - per room per Hotel. With the National Occupancy running at around 50% are you starting to see why it is not possible for a small second world (at best) country to keep up with the big boys.

I resent the implication of if we want it enough. We battle it day in, day out, and work our arses off trying to sustain it and I think we have the best product in the Caribbean, bar none. Sometimes good things cost a bit more.