Tourists wait for flights to resume
If you’ve been watching television this week you may have observed scenes of airline passengers around the world stranded at destinations often thousands of miles from home. While a significant number of those people are marooned in Belize, their circumstances vary widely…as News 5’s Stewart Krohn discovered.
Stewart Krohn, Reporting
Not all of the thousand of travellers stranded around the world are sleeping on the hard floors of airports. Today, I met one women and her son, tourists from Los Angeles, who don’t have to try too hard to make the best of a bad situation.
Cynthia Smith, Stranded Tourist
“We arrived in Belize on August the thirty-first and we came down for a vacation. We’ve been to some of the cayes and down in Dangriga and we were due to fly out today. When I reconfirmed my flight, they told me that all flights were cancelled and delayed and that we wouldn’t be able to get on the next flight until Tuesday; so we’re here, we’re stuck.”
Stewart Krohn
“There’s being stuck and there’s being stuck. There are worse places to be than the Radisson Fort George Hotel. However, the down side of that is I understand you have to pay all your own expenses.”
Cynthia Smith
“That’s correct. I contacted the airlines to find out if they would compensate in any way and they explained to me that they weren’t doing any type of compensations other than getting people on the first available flight out of Belize.”
Stewart Krohn
“Cynthia, you no doubt have a job and there’s a place that you’re supposed to be. Tell us a little bit about that.”
Cynthia Smith
“I’m originally from Los Angeles, California and I too work at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles. I’ve already contacted them and explained to them that…I’m supposed to be at work on Monday, but they know that because of the flight situation that I can’t get out. So I hope to be there as soon as I can.”
One young man who’s in no hurry to get home is Cynthia’s six-year-old son, Torell. When asked how it feels to miss school he had only one thing to say:
Torell Smith, Happy to Miss School
“Great.”
Stewart Krohn
“Why is it great to miss school?”
Torell Smith
“Because I get to spend more time with my mom.”
Torell said his favourite place in Belize was the Belize Zoo. Reporting from the poolside at the Radisson, Stewart Krohn For News 5.
