Belize City cruise tourism starts year ram-jam
They said that the new year was going to be a big one for cruise tourism…and today Belize City felt the first reality of that prediction as two ships simultaneously disgorged their passengers onto the docks of the Tourism Village. Ann-Marie took the opportunity to take a closer look at the ins and out of this fast growing facet of the industry.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
It was a record-breaking day for cruise tourism this season. The Norwegian Sun and the Olympic Voyager steamed into Belize’s harbour this morning, bringing with them a total of over three thousand, one hundred visitors. General Manager of the Belize Tourism Village, Alan Deeks says although the village is still under construction, cruise tourism is a blessing for the nation’s economy.
Alan Deeks, G.M., Tourism Village
“We still have a lot of things to finish here, that will increase the number of tourists around and hopefully we will get those done in the next fifteen to twenty days. By that time we should be have a flow of tourists about. On the sixteenth, we have two more vessels coming in at the same time, slightly bigger, we’re looking at close to five thousand guests. And that’s going to happen regularly each month for the next two or three months. And then in November, we’re looking at a time when there will be as many as six to seven thousand guests arriving on a tourist day with three boats in.”
And with three boats scheduled to simultaneously make Belize their port of call, Victor Espat of the B.T.B.’s cruise-ship sector, says work is underway at several local destinations to upgrade the facilities.
Victor Espat, Cruise-ship Co-ordinator, BTB
“It has already started. For example, at Xunantunich tremendous work has been done on the road already. On the site itself, work is being completed in Lamanai and ongoing work at Caracol as well.”
In the meantime, Espat says tours are well co-ordinated so as not to have the cruise tourists crowd out the land based visitors who vacation in Belize.
Victor Espat
“There are only two or three major tour operators involved in handling most of the tours for the cruise-lines that are visiting Belize. We’ve been working very closely with them to co-ordinate these visits to for example, Xunantunich, and we’ve been looking at the different time factors involved. So for example, if one tour bus goes there with a hundred people are 9:00, then we try and plan it in such a way that the other bus gets there when the first bus leaves, so we don’t really have three hundred people on the site at any given time.”
Alan Deeks
“Let’s face it, we’re only talking about one or two days a week, so there is plenty of room for manoeuvring between the land based tourists and the lines tourists. Tour operators themselves are responsible for their co-ordination between themselves and the cruise lines, as to what tours they provide. You’ve also got your independent tour operators, like the Cruise-ship Taxi Association, who have the small vans, so there is room for plenty of people to be taken care of.”
In the near future, Deeks says the new tourism village will have its own water taxi terminal–All in an effort to accommodate cruise tourism.
Alan Deeks
“We’re putting up our own water taxi terminal and those who want to port, come and join us. There will be better facilities, more parking, easier method of getting in and out, the shops will be in there and water taxis are prepare to move over here.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Fortunately for all concerned, the weather was cool and clear and the seas calm. Despite the nation’s general shortage of foreign exchange, there was plenty of U.S. currency flowing through the numerous businesses at the Tourism Village today.
