PHOTO: Belize is on track to host the most travelers in its history in 2014. (Photo by Brian Major).

Belize is continuing what is shaping up as the country’s most successful year ever in terms of tourist arrivals. The destination has tallied one million combined land and cruise-ship travelers through October 2014.

Belize has hosted 1,018,705 visitors through October, according to BTB data issued Thursday. The total includes 266,107 land-based, overnight arrivals and 752,598 cruise-ship visitors.

Belize’s arrival at the one million visitor mark comes two months earlier than BTB officials had earlier forecast. In a statement, BTB officials said they had predicted arrivals would reach the one million mark in 2014, but only by the end of the year.

Belize has twice hosted one million or more annual visitors: in 2005 (1,036,904 travelers, the country’s highest-ever total) and 2010 (1,006,547).

“Belize is well on its way to having the most visitors ever in its history,” officials said.

A strong fall season drove visitor arrivals for the destination on Central America’s Caribbean coast, which has benefitted this year from expanded air service. October 2014 arrivals increased 6.7 percent year-over-year compared with 2013.

The gain comes during what is traditionally a slow period: BTB had in fact forecast an arrivals decrease of more than 10 percent for October. Belize hosted 56,144 cruise-ship visitors in October, a total 1,769 guests above BTB’s forecast.  

With winter beginning in North America, its largest traveler market, Belize now enters the traditional “high” season. “We expect to set a record as we close off 2014 with November and December arrivals,” said Karen Bevans, director of tourism. “We are anticipating that we will hit that elusive 300,000 overnight visitor mark.”

With tourism growth Belize’s previously profile as a sleepy, low-key tourist destination is changing. The country continues to take small but certain steps toward wider tourist access.

Belize is partnering with Norwegian Cruise Line to build Harvest Caye, a 75-acre, $50 million cruise destination on two adjoining islands in southern Belize. The project will reportedly likely include a floating pier, an island village with open-air structures on raised platforms, a marina, a transportation hub for tours, a lagoon for water sports and a beach area.

Norwegian first considered building on Crawl Caye, a small island also near Belize’s Placencia peninsula, but that plan was rejected by the government, which subsequently helped the company identify the present site.

Earllier this year Jose Manuel Heredia Jr., the country’s minister of tourism and culture, said Belize has secured additional funding for tourism infrastructure development and is “negotiating other cooperation agreements to support the development of tourism infrastructure with key international partners.”

Heredia said initiatives include development of a waterfront strategy for the Punta Gorda district, a tourism development plan for Caye Caulker, a popular local destination for residents as well as tourists, and development of a waterfront strategy for Belize’s Corozal region.