Tourism Director Speaks on Calls to Port and Cruise Ports

A delegation from Belize left the country to meet with cruise line representatives to further develop the cruise tourism industry in Belize. The cruise sector is said to have been the hardest hit, in terms of tourism. While speaking about increasing calls to port in Belize, Tourism Director Evan Tillett was also asked about those cruise ports that are also coming on stream soon.

Evan Tillett

Evan Tillett, Director of Tourism, B.T.B.

“We continue to work with the lines to get new ships in. They are currently working on ramping up their numbers. They were at fifty percent in terms of capacity; they are as much as sixty seventy percent, almost eighty and then omicron hit and they had to regress. And so they are just now in the process of ramping up those numbers and so we should see a strong rebound in cruise tourism as we move into 2022. One of the critical things in cruise tourism is to have a docking facility. The ships that are being build are larger ships and having a tender port creates a lot of logistical issues and so we really need to have a port docking facility in Belize if we are to continue grow the cruise tourism numbers. If we don’t get that, then we will end up losing numbers because the bigger ships will bypass our port. So it is critical that we have a docking facility in this country as quickly as possible.”

Duane Moody

“What kinda assurances can be given to the small man that they will also be able to provide services to those tourists?”

Evan Tillett

“The B.T.B. is the regulator of the industry. In terms of ensuring that there is a fairness within the industry, we will do everything in our power to ensure that. Having a docking facility, does not really change the dynamics in terms of the tour operator side of the business. What it does, if you have a product that you can take to the cruise lines and can sell to the cruise lines, you can become contracted.”