Carnival ships to return to Belize on Thurs…

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Dean the cancellation of cruise ships calling on ports along the Yucatan peninsula was to be expected but even after the all clear had been declared in Belize, one cruise line extended its withdrawal. Last Wednesday local port agent for the Carnival ships, Eurocaribe, was asked for official confirmation that the English Channel was clear of silt and that all marker buoys were in place. The letter was sent from the Port Authority Commissioner the next day but Carnival had already decided to pull its ships from Belize for the rest of the week. The drastic move prompted a delegation headed by Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith to move up travel plans to Miami in order to make courtesy calls to all the cruise lines in order to assure them that Belize’s cruise ship industry has not been affected by the storm. This morning Director of Tourism Tracy Taegar-Panton told us that the group will also use the opportunity to lobby the cruise lines for additional business.

Tracy Taegar Panton, Director of Tourism, B.T.B.
“We are open, we’re ready for business. We have the infrastructure in place, the capacity to host additional ships, especially during this low season and our hope is that we can improve on our cruise ship schedule. There are a number of ships going to Mahahual that have not been coming to Belize but the shift could be made very easily from Mahahual, to Belize and onto Cozumel and so we are hoping that we can sell them that idea of keeping the ships in the Western Caribbean rather than taking them to the Eastern Caribbean.”

Janelle Chanona
“Do you think that we would be, I know you say we’re ready, but do you think we’ll be able to facilitate those extra people?”

Tracy Taegar Panton
“We are able to, in terms of infrastructure on the ground, in terms of the tenders, and the trained tour guides, tour operators. Yes, the infrastructure is in place to host extra ships.”

The Mexican cruise port Mahahual sustained substantial damage as a result of Hurricane Dean and is not expected to be back on line for at least six months. According to Eurocaribe’s Martha Williams, while the Carnival Glory will not call on Belize until December eighteenth, the Valor and the Legend will get back to its regular schedule starting on the sixth of September. This time of the year is considered the off season as the cruise trade normally picks up steam at the end of October.