By: Omar Silva I Editor/Publisher

National Perspective BELIZE

www.nationalperspectivebz.com

Belize City: Saturday 29th November 2025

EDITORIAL – SPECIAL FIRE BRAND EDITION

There comes a moment in every nation’s history when the fog of political spin becomes too thick to breathe, too poisonous to ignore, too dangerous to the people’s future to remain unchallenged. Belize has reached that moment.

The tourism officials at the Biltmore tried to sell a victory.

What they delivered was an admission of national weakness, dependency, and desperation disguised as “strategy.”

Let us call the thing by its real name:

Belize is now paying foreign corporations to sustain an industry that should be paying Belize.

And the worst part?

They are proud of it.

Airlift Is No Achievement When You’re Paying the Airlines to Come

The Director of Tourism openly declared:

“It’s now a pay-to-play environment.”

Let that sink in.

Belize now subsidizes airlines—either by paying for their marketing, guaranteeing their profits, or in some cases, paying for empty seats.

This is not bold leadership.

This is economic surrender.

It is a concession that our tourism product no longer attracts airlines on its own merit. Instead, we pay them to pretend it does.

It is a concession that airport fees are too high, infrastructure too stagnant, and our bargaining power too weak to stand on its own.

It is a concession that Belize is no longer a sovereign agent in its own tourism destiny—but a dependent subcontractor to foreign interests.

A Country That Cannot Buy Hospital Scanners Is Buying Airline Seats

We cannot fix our hospitals.

We cannot supply essential medicines.

We cannot build psychiatric wards.

We cannot afford new BDF boots or Coast Guard vessels.

We cannot guarantee sugar supply, fuel stability, or cheap electricity.

But we can guarantee airline revenue for billion-dollar corporations?

This is the twisted morality of Belize’s political class.

It is easier for them to subsidize a global airline than to subsidize insulin.

Easier to guarantee profits to Spirit Airlines than to guarantee textbooks to Belizean students.

Easier to invest public funds in airline load factors than in national food security.

This is the definition of a country that has lost its priorities.

PGIA Fees: A Hidden Tax That Punishes Belizeans While Enriching Concessions

Belize charges some of the highest airport fees in the entire region.

But who benefits?

Not the government.

Not tourism workers.

Not Belizean families.

Not national infrastructure.

The private airport concession continues to enjoy its golden pipeline of revenue, while government officials defend the fees as “necessary.”

Necessary for whom?

Belizeans now pay up to US $70 just to exit their own country.

A family of four pays over $560 BZD in fees—before even purchasing tickets.

This is not tourism.

This is taxation without representation.

A nation of 450,000 people has been reduced to the status of a captive revenue stream—all for the sake of a tourism model we no longer control.

Twenty Years of Cruise Port Promises: The Biggest Lie in Modern Tourism

Every government comes with the same fairy tale:

“A cruise berthing facility is coming.”

Twenty years later, the biggest ships bypass Belize because we still tender tourists in small boats from 1985.

Roatán built three ports.

Cozumel expanded multiple terminals.

Costa Maya turned into a mega-hub.

Belize built… press releases.

Tourism officials reassure us:

“I don’t think the cruise lines are losing patience.”

This is delusion, plain and simple.

Cruise lines are corporations, not boy scouts. They operate on profit, not pity. They will not wait for Belize’s political class to figure out its priorities. They have already begun bypassing us—and nobody wants to admit the truth.

Belize is one election away from becoming a minor, irrelevant cruise destination in the Western Caribbean.

The $350 Million Cruise Port Fantasy

Government claims a new port at the Port of Belize will cost US $350 million and that discussions are “ongoing.”

Translation:

They have no money, no investor, no timeline, and no guarantee.

The last port ended in lawsuits, political interference, and an international embarrassment that still hangs over the country like a rotten cloud.

Yet Belizeans are supposed to trust that the same political class will miraculously deliver a megastructure that even regional giants struggle to finance?

At best, it is a delusion.

At worst, it is another political scheme waiting for election season.

We Are Subsidizing a Mirage While the Foundations of the Nation Collapse

Let us examine the irony:

✔️ Belize subsidizes airline seats

But cannot subsidize school meals.

✔️ Belize guarantees airline profits

But cannot guarantee electricity stability for households.

✔️ Belize courts cruise lines

But cannot court investments in agriculture, manufacturing, or domestic transport.

✔️ Belize invests in foreign carriers

But refuses to invest in a national airline.

This is not development.

This is dependency.

Worse—this is dependency paid for by Belizean pockets.

A country that builds its economy on the good graces of foreign corporations is a country that has already forfeited its sovereignty.

The Harsh Truth: Belize Has No Tourism Strategy—Only Tourism Reactions

What the press conference revealed, without intending to, is that Belize does not have:

• A national tourism master plan
• A long-term investment framework
• An aviation strategy
• A maritime strategy
• A cruise strategy
• A fee reform plan
• A local airline alternative
• A diversification vision
• A resilience strategy

Instead, we operate on HOPE:

• Hope airlines will come

• Hope cruise lines will wait

• Hope investors will finance mega-projects

• Hope fees won’t matter

• Hope Belize can compete with Cancún, Cozumel, and Roatán

• Hope the world won’t notice we are scrambling behind the scenes

This is not governance.

This is improvisation.

Belize Must Face the Truth Before It’s Too Late

The tourism industry is fragile.

It is dependent.

It is poorly diversified.

It is externally controlled.

And it is politically manipulated.

Belize’s political elite is building castles in the air and calling them “progress.”

They are gambling with public funds and calling it “investment.”

They are subsidizing foreign corporations and calling it “partnership.”

They are failing the people and calling it “growth.”

Belize cannot continue on this path.

A country cannot sustain itself by paying others to keep us afloat.

A nation cannot prosper when the wealth of its industries flows outward, not inward.

A people cannot thrive when the government prioritizes foreign interests over national needs.

The Call Belize Must Finally Answer

This editorial stands unapologetically on the side of truth:

Belize must abandon its dependency model and build a tourism system led by Belizeans, benefiting Belizeans, and controlled by Belizeans.

This requires:

• Restructuring PGIA fees
• Ending predatory airport concessions
• Creating a national airline strategy
• Developing a real cruise port plan
• Investing in domestic tourism
• Redirecting subsidies to Belizean workers and industries
• Ending the “pay-to-play” surrender
• Building infrastructure that empowers—not impoverishes
• Replacing political gimmicks with national vision

*Belize does not need more foreign airlines.

*Belize does not need more cruise lines.

*Belize does not need more empty promises.

Belize needs leadership—real, principled, patriotic leadership.

Until that day arrives, foreign corporations will continue to dine while Belizeans lick the crumbs off the table.

And that, Belizeans, is the truth.

A truth NP Belize will continue to speak—even when the political class trembles at the sound of it.