Allegations fly in face of tourism fiasco

The scene at the Tourism Village may have returned to normal, but the recriminations over Wednesday morning’s near riot are still flying fast and furious. Yesterday Novelo’s Bus Line issued a press release saying it denied the use of its buses to tour company Cruise Solutions because of the latter’s breach of contract, presumably some unpaid bills. Today, it was Cruise Solutions’ turn. The company’s release denied any hard pay, casting aspersions on the quality of Novelo’s vehicles and level of service. With public opinion highly critical of both parties, it was left to Director of Tourism Tracy Taegar to strike an upbeat note for the future.

Tracy Taegar, Director of Tourism

“There are very few days when there are four ships a week and today was one of those days. Hopefully we will be able to put the necessary parameters in place so that we can deal with the immediate concerns and hopefully plan for the long term.”

“Well there is some plans by the city council to refurbish Belize City, clean it up a bit, paint, extend the village capacity, put in the necessary broad walk along the waterfront which will enhance the visitor’s experience while in Belize City. There is on going training by the tourism board and tourism training unit to upgrade the skills of our guides and taxi drivers, customer relations skills for everybody on the front line; those kinds of initiatives. However, we have to look at developing new sites, extending the capacity of our existing sites and those are more long term projects.”

According to Cruise Solutions boss David Gegg, all his tour guides, including those who could not work yesterday, will be paid for the day.