A Brief History of Tourism in Belize - by Geoffrey de Sibert
Property development is a reasonably new business in Belize. The first significant property development venture was a vision cast for the Island of Ambergris Caye, previously a Maya fisherman’s town. San Pedro, the greatest settlement on Ambergris Caye, started urbanizing in 1970 and grew perfectly into a flourishing mixed-use hotel community where property interest increased around the tourism demand produced on the close destinations for example the scuba and snorkeling upon the nearby coral reef, visits to the many archeological sites, eco-tourism and sunshine drenched beaches. Today, Ambergris Caye enjoys the most tourist visits and followed by Placencia to the south.
Placencia, perfectly located at the Stann Creek Region of Belize, was called “Pleasant Point" by Spanish explorers who had been taken due by the great beauty from this beautiful peninsula as well as its grand lagoons. Placencia, once a rural fisherman’s town, was first made famous by the renowned film director, Francis Ford Coppola, when he completed the Turtle Inn--a deluxe 18 room eco lodge--and a municipal airport in 1983. Coppola was so taken by Belize and its beautiful environment that he built Blancaneaux, a hunting lodge and converted it to a 2nd luxury eco-hotel in the Maya mountains near San Ignacio. The notoriety of the 2 deluxe lifestyle resorts immediately lured the affluent and celebraties to Belize becoming a cool, off-the-radar location to enjoy organic beauty and confidentiality off the public and over-built destinations. As Belize tourism begun to receive positive publicity in gossip columns and travel journals, both affluent and budget travelers alike started frequenting Belize, therefore increasing the deman for resorts, holiday villa apartments and eventually, 2nd homes and main homes for those lucky enough to consider the country their own.
Post-Recession Real Property Development Market - General Observations
As the post-recession property development market begins unfolding, it is certainly demonstrating some dynamic parameters that, if properly utilized, are required to steer to increased stability, sustainability, and profitability in the future hotel community development efforts. As the recession caused financial pressure for several real property programmers and their customers, on top of that generally seems to are coming up with a uniquely new composition for the demand and supply corners of the coming hotel development marketplace.
Pre-recession stock markets often allowed upstart designers who lacked experience, qualifications and right capitalization, to create financing that at the least enabled them over too get their pleasurable tasks around the primary sales release stage. This leaded to numerous fledgling tasks saturating the production area of the hotel marketplace and while the simple extra money available for investments been lost, the tasks crashed, too, and was element of a burgeoning “distressed real estate supply. Meanwhile, the straightforward credit score terms led many speculative customers located on the need part to participate in within your vacation home or holiday real estate market, frequently exiting them in arrears when how well they get credit disappeared.
-Geoffrey de Sibert