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The sargassum phenomenon is swamping beaches all over Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Belize is no exception – and with tourism numbers for the first half of the year sagging just a little bit – the blighted beaches can be safely scapegoated for the modest downturn. And what is government doing to try and help? Today the Tourism Minister said they are giving duty exemptions to any resort or hotel owner who is importing equipment to dispose of the Sargassum:…

Hon. Manuel Junior Heredia - Minister of Tourism

"The overall from the January to July it was .08 % only the difference between one year and the other. So I believe that even though there were little factors, one that I could say that you mentioned privately a while ago the sargassum has been a minimal; I cannot say that it is just a minimal part of that one because our beaches for almost 2 years have been practically 25-30 feet wide, the entire beaches of Belize with that sargassum. Whenever you cannot keep your beaches 24 hours a day as white as it used to be, it is indeed a problem. There are some of the tourists that will come specifically to be bathing in the shallow waters right in front of the beach of their resort."

Government for its part have been trying with whatever equipment they want to get, duty exemption to be able to assists the hotelier to make sure that they can the best that they can to have their beaches as clean as possible. I know for a fact now that in San Pedro there is Matachica that has gotten equipment; I haven't seen it personally in the value of 30,000 US, in less than an hour will have their beaches clean. Grand Caribe also has something like a turbine that they have bought. And according to the owner, he tells me that within an hour also they get rid of the sargassum. So hopefully we will find the right solution to be able to deal with this natural phenomenon. But again it is a regional problem. If you see in the social media, Cancun is worst that Belize. 4 feet deep and I believe almost 100 feet wide. I think it is St. Martin that had to close the beaches over there because it was unmanageable. So Belize as a whole is going well and the beauty about Belize is that we can pull together, we search it together and make sure we can address as best as possible.