Tour Guides Ask for Relief From High Gas Prices
The steadily rising cost of fuel has remained a bread and butter issue for many people whose livelihoods depend on that commodity. Aside from the booked tours, today only eight certified tour operators and tour guides work outside the gates at the Belize Tourism Village. But before they even attempted to seek out clients today, they felt it necessary to share their frustration with the public. It wasn’t a protest with placards, but a message for all to read as they wrote on their windshields and car windows. Marion Ali was at the Tourism Village to find out how the tour guides plan to deal with their problem.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Today tour operators and tour guides decided to write down their concern, something they feel has been spiraling out of control for too long – high fuel prices. They penned their protest not on paper, but on the windshields of their vehicles for all to see. For them, tourism has still not rebounded to pre-COVID era and whatever business they are able to conduct now is barely enough to cover bills. They want the Government to lower the taxes it collects on fuel so that their livelihood can be viable.
John Pollard
John Pollard, Big John Tours
“Our gas prices have been going up for the past eleven months.”
Marion Ali
“So why do you bring this up now?”
John Pollard
“We bring this up now because it is going to a rocket high – twelve dollars and eleven cents. It is slow already here in tourism for us doing tours. For the government it is not slow. When those ships dock in the harbour, the government collects head tax if the people come off or if they do not come off.”
John Pollard, who has been a tour operator for over a decade, says that while fuel prices have been on the increase for almost a year now, it has come to a point now where it is simply not making his business a profitable one, and raising the price of their tours is not an option.
John Pollard
“Our tour is being sold at one consecutive price. When the tourist comes along, I can’t tell dehn because gas price gone up I have to ker up my cost, simply because on the websites it’s competition, so everybody has to have a set price in doing tours.”
Dennis Tillett, Tour Guide
“Chukka are the ones moving. They are the ones that have booked tours off these cruise ships, so if the ships are working at sixty percent and Chukka is getting forty percent, the twenty percent that we are expecting from out here is just to eat and to ker home a little revenue, a little income to our home – it’s not helping us and working out for us.”
Pollard said they are taking action incrementally to get the Government’s attention.
John Pollard
“If this continues with the prices, then yes, yes there will be a protest, when, I’m not going to say; I cannot say to you.”
But that protest may not be necessary after all because when we reached out to Prime Minister John Briceño following the interviews at the tourism village, he told us via WhatApp that quote: “I brought it up in Cabinet and asked Ministry of Finance to take a look at it and see what adjustments we can make,” unquote. The PM has not indicated how soon that adjustment in taxes from fuel will take effect. Marion Ali For News Five.
