Tour guides meet to discuss Memorial move

Operators of the Fort George Tourism Zone are uniting to fight plans by the Belize City Council, Tourism Board and Belize Tourism Village to move occupants of the area to the Memorial Park and their vehicles to the area of the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. The actual implementation has been delayed, but President Albert Alvarez says it is a threat to their livelihoods, in addition to the whisper campaign by larger operators aboard the visiting cruise ships.

Albert Alvarez, President, Tour Operators’ Association

Albert Alvarez

“It hasn’t been implemented as yet and I am not sure when we will be having a next meeting with the Belize Tourism Board again but as the association we are…we are not in support of that any at all. And we believe that the guides are suppose to be much closer because that is where we do our work and the tour guide serve somewhat as a sales representation within the zone as well. So they work for the tour operators but they do their own sales and that is what tourist board wants to change. There is a way we must could sit down and talk about it. For now we are just trying to strengthen our position as an association. These meetings that we are having are for the membership and we are trying to bring everybody form the zone to come on board so that we can address this situation in a more formal and more united way.”

About thirty persons attended today’s meeting at the ITVET Grounds.