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In the last quarter of 2022, the contribution of hotels and restaurants in Belize to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was negative for the first time since the second quarter of 2021. At that time, Belize had experienced a striking rise versus the same quarter in the previous year because of the COVID-19 impact on the tourism sector.

Belize's gross domestic product

Belize's GDP has increased steadily for the most part over the past decades, jumping from **** billion U.S. dollars in 1988 to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2022. According to October 2023 projections, the country's GDP will reach over *** billion U.S. dollars by 2028. The per capita GDP in Belize in 2022 was calculated to be at roughly **** U.S. dollars. This was among the lowest values in Latin America and the Caribbean, and with a difference of *** thousand with the regional average. However, Belize still surpassed most of its neighboring countries in this metric, and also registered the third highest GDP per capita in Central America.

The recovery of tourism in Belize

In 2022, Belize experienced a significant surge in international overnight visitor arrivals, reaching around *** thousand, a roughly ** percent increase compared to the previous year. March emerged as the peak month for inbound tourist arrivals in the Central American country, recording approximately ** thousand in total. The largest share of these arrivals were for leisure purposes, constituting the primary motive for most international visitors to Belize in 2022. Specifically, the country welcomed about *** thousand overnight leisure arrivals during that year. In contrast, business tourism contributed to an additional **** thousand inbound tourist arrivals in Belize over the same 12-month period.