Tourism Minister Speaks About Harvest Caye Investment

Manuel Heredia Jr.

Minister of Tourism Manuel Heredia was on hand for the ribbon cutting and represented the Government of Belize.  According to Heredia, the project falls within the sustainable tourism master plan.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism

“On behalf of the government and people of Belize, I would like to welcome you all to this important occasion. The arrival of Norwegian Dawn to Harvest Caye today is a milestone in the cruise tourism industry. But for this to happen, it needed a lot of people with open minds; it needed the support of a lot of people, in particular one person that comes to mind to me who was up and down, back and forth, never giving up, is Mister Colin Murphy from Norwegian Cruise Lines. I believe he deserves a round of applause. Many times I thought that he would leave because of little hurdles that were around, but he never gave up. The arrival of this cruise line today is so important to many Belizeans because of the job creations, because they will be able to showcase their cultures, their traditional products, and I believe that this government has done its fair share and we welcome investment to Belize. I also have to applaud the nine agencies that work together with the project and that is the Ministry of Investment, Petroleum; it’s agencies: BELTRAIDE, the Ministry of Tourism, particularly the Belize Tourism Board of which my director, Karen Bevans, did a fantastic job along with her team. Also Customs Department, Immigration Department; BAHA. The southern Belize people; those are the ones that we must congratulate because they are the ones that we must congratulate because they are the ones that will be living the day-to-day experiences over here. And I believe that the type of product that Norwegian has created today is one of the best in the Caribbean. They have tried to customize our Belizean products rather than having international franchise from around the area and we are very proud of them for that initiative. This particular project will be employing by the year 2020 at least one thousand one hundred and seventy-five workers directly and another seven to eight hundred indirectly. So it’s a big, big help to Belize. Also the project was constructed in line with our Sustainable Tourism Master Plan. Norwegian has been kind enough and working together with us to create the type of sustainable ecotourism that is needed and is welcomed in Belize.”