The Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA) has formally announced that San Pedro’s entire tourism stakeholder base has reached a unified stance rejecting two high-profile proposed infrastructure projects: a new airport development near the popular Secret Beach site, and a planned cross-border bridge connecting Ambergris Caye to Mexico. The collective position emerged from a dedicated stakeholder gathering hosted by BTIA’s San Pedro Chapter on November 2, 2026, which was attended by BTIA National President Efren Perez to gather on-the-ground perspectives on the viability, timeliness, and potential local impacts of the proposed north-side airport project. During the session, tourism operators, local business owners, and community representatives emphasized that the island’s most urgent priorities are not large-scale new build projects, but rather targeted investments to resolve longstanding unmet needs: strained core infrastructure, worsening road and pedestrian traffic congestion, unregulated waste management gaps, fragile coastal conservation efforts, affordable housing for local residents, under-resourced public health services, and enhanced community safety frameworks. BTIA leadership further underscored that independent World Bank research has repeatedly flagged unplanned rapid development, underfunded municipal services, rising pollution levels, and accelerating coastal erosion as existential threats to Ambergris Caye’s world-famous tourism brand. The association warned that pushing forward with unvetted large construction projects without addressing these pre-existing vulnerabilities would put the entire island’s tourism economy, and the thousands of local livelihoods directly tied to it, at severe avoidable risk. The high-profile meeting was also attended by Andre Perez, Belize’s Minister of Blue Economy and Marine Conservation and the elected area representative for Belize Rural South. Minister Perez shared with attendees that he supports a gradual, phased roadmap for any potential future transition away from the current downtown John Greif II airstrip to a new airport facility, and confirmed that no north-side airport proposal will move forward without full, transparent public consultation, with community feedback directly shaping his official position on the project. The stakeholder alignment comes on the heels of a formal, binding vote by the San Pedro Town Council to reject the closure of the existing downtown airport, putting the local governing body at direct odds with national government officials who have publicly stated that a new island airport is a necessary priority for the territory. Moving forward, BTIA has outlined plans to continue targeted community outreach, aggregate all collected stakeholder feedback into a formal public submission, and initiate structured negotiations with national government authorities. The association has committed to advocating for all future major development decisions for Ambergris Caye to be rooted in meaningful, inclusive public consultation, evidence-based long-term planning, and the shared best interests of both the island’s permanent resident population and its $400 million annual tourism sector.
San Pedro Tourism Industry Says No to Airport Near Secret Beach and to a Mexico Bridge
