There’s a Dire Need for a Mainland Cruise Facility

David Gegg

Developer David Gegg, who has been in the tourism industry for almost forty years, also addressed the need for a cruise facility to be constructed on the mainland.  Aside from being the founding director of Portico Enterprises, a special purpose vehicle for the realization of Port of Magical Belize, Gegg emphasizes that in order for larger vessels to call on Belize, the country needs to do away with tendering visitors.

David Gegg, Founding Director, Portico Enterprises

“I know the players, I know the people at the cruise lines and I know what they want and for many, many years they have been hoping that Belize would create a mainland docking facility because that is how they maximize the profits that they make, and let’s face it, they come here for only one reason and that’s to make money.  But by being able to dock on the mainland and send people on shore excursions, that is what they want and especially with the ships of today getting much bigger than they were when the industry started in 1997.  They need a mainland docking facility, the big ships of today are much too small to tender.  So what we have designed and intend to build in the near term is really something that has the inputs of people within the cruise industry because they know what they need and they’ve shared that with us and what we proposed to build is what the cruise industry wants.  Our project is a docking facility on the mainland.  It’s about nine miles south of Belize City.  Quite frankly a renaissance is coming to Belize City and this project is the catalyst that is driving that renaissance.  We have interest from other entities that represent even more capital than what our port project represents.  Their interest in developing hotels, solar farms and several other projects and I think you will see tremendous employment in the short, medium and long term.”