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Tonight there is concern in the tourism industry after tourist arrivals at the PGIA went down by 7.8%  in September. That's more than one thousand fewer arrivals than September 2018.

And what's even more worrying is that overnight tourism stays went down by 8.5% which represents a huge loss in income for hotels.

So, what's causing this downturn? Well, the trend started back in June when American Dr. Gary Swank was murdered in San Pedro. And it spiked again in September - which happens to be when the Bus Operators forced government to sign a Statutory Instrument blocking Guatemalan and Mexican tour busses from entering  Belize.

They thought they could pick up the business for local operators, but that's not how it works. The president of the Bus Association Thomas Shaw learned this first hand when the he went to Guatemala City with the Hotel Association one week ago. They went to meet the European Tour operators who hire those Guatemalan busses to bring their guests to Belize.

Today, at a press conference at the Biltmore, the Presidents of the Hotel and the Bus Associations discussed the trip, the lessons, and what they're going to do about it. They started with an overview of the worrying trends in tourism right now: