Tourism arrivals are showing steady growth in Belize for the first quarter of 2017 after a very strong 2016, according to the latest numbers from the country’s tourist board.

The overnight tourism sector continued on a positive trajectory in 2017, with increases in each of the first three months of the year, leading to an overall 2.7 percent at the end of March 2017.

The month of March is traditionally the height of the island’s tourism season.

In March of 2016, there was a record number of tourist arrivals totaling over 43,000 visitors.

However, this record was surpassed in March 2017, with over 44,400 tourist visitors, making it the highest number of tourist arrivals ever recorded in a single month.

An overall increase of 8.7 percent in cruise passenger arrivals was recorded for the first three months of 2017.

With an increase of 24.2 percent and 22.7 percent in January and February 2017 respectively, along with a short decline of 13.1 percent in March 2017, the total number of cruise ship passengers registered in the first quarter of 2017 surpassed that of 2016.

— Dana Niland, CJ Contributor