New terminal for water taxis
It has been the scene of some heated battles over the tourism pie in recent months, but the new owners of the Tourism Village are hoping that an expansion to the present infrastructure will help ease tensions at the Fort Street Tourism Village.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
A new terminal for water taxis is now open at the old farmers market in Belize City. Manager of the facility, Ramon Cervantes, says although it is part of the Fort Street Tourism Village, arriving cruise ship passengers will not be the only ones passing through its doors.
Ramon Cervantes, Manager, Terminal Four
“The name speaks for itself; it’s a mall. In there it has many shops carrying fine quality goods, not only for the tourists, but also for the local people. It is a mall that the local people are welcome to patronise. We’d like them to come in and see it.”
Joe Marin, President, Water Taxi Association
“This is an original plan from the tourism village from the very beginning. But it was just a space and the cruise ships started coming so rapidly that they had to use up the space over there that we were to use over the until they built this terminal which is terminal four.”
Ramon Cervantes
“What is different is that the street side vendors that sell to the cruise ship passengers will also be housed in here. As you can see the kiosks, there is fifteen outside and there is another seven inside. And so you will find that not only expensive items–if you want to think of it that way–that you will find here, but you’ll find low cost items too.”
But while the Terminal is supposed to be home to over a dozen small vendors, they were noticeably absent from their stalls. Cervantes says a small glitch in the plans was responsible.
Ramon Cervantes
“The vendors had come in, in here was teeming with vendors. The first section in there the seven little stalls was teeming with vendors, but the bridge joining the two villages has not yet been completed so the cruise ship passengers that supposed to walk down this way to give business to his mall and to these people out here and the busses, the busses were not stopping here, so that this place was like a graveyard. And you can’t blame the vendors, they are not making any money and they have to pay a daily rent, so they left.”
Cervantes says that once the boardwalk currently under construction is complete the vendors will return. For Marin, that prospect will also provide much needed traffic for his new venture.
Joe Marin
“And as we speak right now there is work going on to link this part of the village with the other part, what they were calling a board walk. Well its made out of cement, but they are going to link it that the people who come off the ship, there is a lot of people who come off the ship that don’t buy tours on the ship. They come off and they start walking around then they get interested they want to go to the islands, and we are here to service those people also.”
Marin says the service involved nine boat owners who have pooled their resources to offer three daily round trips to Caye Caulker and San Pedro. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
While the stalls inside terminal four will operate on a flexible schedule, Marin says the Watertaxi Association’s service will be open to the public seven days a week.
