Do you support the introduction of cruise tourism in the Placencia peninsula?
The cruise tourism industry is facing a turbulent time and from the look of things there is more turmoil on the horizon. It recently became known that cruise tourism is contemplated for the south, one of the fastest growing areas in tourism. The Placencia Peninsula is known for the best beaches in the mainland and laid back environment where visitors are left impressed with the hospitality and warmth of the local residents. It is pristine and unspoiled so far, but all that can change. So tonight we ask the question: Do you support the introduction of cruise tourism in the Placencia peninsula? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phones to 8686 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an email with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com.
Only if we negotiate with Belize’s best interest from the start. If we cannot lift up the rest of the country, then do not sell our soul to benefit a few. At least 75% of the shops & other businesses need to be Belizeans owned & operated & that includes the concession stands at the hotels.. Keeping in mind that the average Belizean cannot afford real estate in Placencia, structure ownership or rental of retail facilities so that we can participate. Set the parameters & require in your Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions that those businesses remain in the hands of Belizeans.
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We come to Placencia because of the way it is today, laid back, good people, good food, local tours with local guides. If cuise ships come it will ruin our reason for coming, oh, by the way we stay for 7 to 10 days in the village and spend our money locally. If we wanted to see a manufactured village we could go to Daytona or Panama City, Florida.
As a resident of Placencia I do not support the introduction of cruise tourism to this area. Placencia is currently a popular destination precisely because it doesn’t have intensive tourism, it is simply not that type of destination. Any implementation of cruise tourism to the Peninsula will simply ruin the area and bring a halt to the type of visitor we currently see.
NO CRUISE SHIP TO PLACENCIA, BELIZEAN CITIZENS WILL NOT HAVE ANY BENEFIT. likewise i agree with you David.
Any tourism should be good for Belize if the governemnt handles it appropriately.
The revenue should go to the country and not to all the private investors who can see a financial quick win at the expense of the environment and the Belizean people.
I am British, born of a Belizean mother and have visited Placencia twice. I loved the area! I have travelled all over the world and I loved the fact that Belize is relatively true to it’s heritage but this will be threatened if overdevelopment ensues.
It seems that Belize is currently seen as an ‘exclusive holiday destination’ with very few Europeans really knowing anything of the area. Belize needs to look at the benefits and drawbacks from the other popular holiday destinations like Bahamas, Jamaica, Dominican Republic etc and use their experiences to build a profitable tourism trade in Belize without losing it’s charm and exclusivity.
NO. I do not support. All we will get from cruise business down here is to see large foreign companies earn all the income and we be left with overused resources, sewage and trash.
NO!! and it should not be for the country to decide the fate of the Placencia Peninsula but for those that LIVE there. My family has owned property there for over 130 years and I never want to see it spoiled by cruise tourism. There is just not enough room for them on the peninsula or on the fragile ecosystems both on the reef and inland for that many people at one time. Again I say NO!
NO
The Placencia Peninsula does not have the infrastructure (sewer systems etc.) to handle the volume of visitors that the cruise industry would bring to the area.
Absolutely not
Mass cruise ship tourism in Placencia will destroy the hard-won overnight tourism that the area has so carefully built over the last 20 years. And, an extensive study of the cruise ship industry in Belize sponsored by the BTB proves that overnight tourism brings MUCH more economic benefit, employment and taxes to Belize with much less damage to the country than mass overnight cruise tourism.
Belize also has NO ability to enforce its laws, including laws related to cruise ship tourism, such as the number of tourists per guide, laws against dumping sewage, bilge water and garbage into the Sea, etc. We already can’t enforce these laws in Belize City – what makes anyone think we can enforce them in the southern Belize – where enforcement will be even harder than it is is Belize City (if the laws were even enforced there, which they’re not).
Only a few will benefit – the large tour operators like Bakabush and operations like Diamond International. Local tour operators simply don’t have the financial resources or access to cheap money that foreign companies do, so they can’t compete.
Tourist sites in the south are small – such as Laughing Bird, Nim Li Punit, Lubaantun, etc. Some are already at or over capacity now. How will we accommodate 1000s of tourists a day under these circumstances without irrevocably damaging our natural heritage?
Some people in the south say cruise ship tourism is ok because we can control it. Hah! When have we in the south been given the opportunity to control ANYTHING. Placencia Village passed its by-laws for regulation of our Village in 2002. Eight years later, those by-laws remain in limbo because national government refuses to complete the process of enacting them into law. They say they will, but they never do, despite years and years of heavy lobbying and repeated pushes by our Village Council to get the by-laws put into law. We tell national government we don’t want certain kinds of developments, but what do they do? They go ahead and approve them anyway. Bah. We can’t control cruise tourism, especially when one single cruise ship company, Carnival, had revenues last year of over 40 TIMES that of the entire country of Belize. What kind of negotiating power do we have under those circumstances.
Bringing mass cruise tourism to Placencia will destroy the Placencia that people in Belize and much of the rest of the world have come to know and love. Not to mention its effect on local Belizean owned businesses such as restaurants, hotels, gift shops and tour operators.
PLACENCIA IS NOT CRUISE TOURISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No cruise ships in Placencia!
NO No No
This is not a decision that all of the Belizean people should make for Placencia. It is for the people of Placencia to decide. There will be no benefit to the tourism industry on the peninsula. The kind of vistiors and potential visitors to Placencia will not want to come when they hear it’s a cruise ship destination. Placencia stands to lose far more than it will gain.
You should’ve done an investigative story on the matter before posting this poll.
I hope you consider doing an in-depth news story on this situation and get us some concrete answers.
“It recently became known that cruise tourism is contemplated in the south” is disturbing. You’re not telling us who is contemplating, why, what would need to follow through, how it can be stopped …
GET US ANSWERS.
Everything that makes Placencia an enduringly appealing destination revolves around its low-density, low-stress, timeless, welcoming atmosphere and natural, unspoiled beauty. Ill-conceived mega-developments have already begun on the peninsula that could change all this; cruise ship tourism would seal the deal and quite possibly resurrect large developments that have been cleared but are currently stalled financially- an extraordinary second chance for them to be converted back into small-scale operations that offer better, more, and more secure jobs to Belizeans as opposed to imported staff. Once Placencia loses its special and distinctly Belizean brand and charm, it will quickly fade into the global morass of genetically cloned, hermetically sealed travel experiences. It will lose its value, its faithful guests, and its resilience against global market ups and downs. Contrary to popular belief, when you’re talking about a place, a soul has enormous monetary value, and it is easily bargained away for short-lived trinkets. Large cruise ships would be a big mistake for Placencia.
As a former resident of Placencia and current resident of Belize I personally do not believe much economic benefit will be seen by the local communities from cruise tourism around Placencia.
There is a lot to say on this issue. Mr. Krohn who is a resident of the Placencia Peninsula has fairly eloquently stated much of it at http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=10230
I have traveled to Belize and mainly Placencia because it is a serene, calm, small village. I have options to spend tourist dollars in other destinations, but I choose Placencia because there are no cruise ships full of daytrippers ( ugh) I don’t think Royal Caribbean nor the Belize government truly cares about the environment nor the people of Placencia if they are considering inviting this mass catastrophe into such a beautiful place
I vote no, NO, please NO!
Absolutely NOT !!! It would totally destroy a beautiful village that is home to a lot of long time families.
Powerful excerpts from that letter submitted to the Amandala by Mr. Krohn. (Thanks for sharing David Santilli! This man is a genius!)
“For most local businesses, getting involved with cruise tourism is a lot like stepping into the Princess casino: for every winner there are a hundred losers.”
[…]
“What, one wonders, is the balance of power when Carnival sits down with a single Belizean tour operator? To use an analogy that many Belizeans can relate to, it’s like the relationship between the man driving an Escalade and the crack head who wants to wash his car…and just to be clear: we’re not the guy in the Escalade.”
[…]
“Tourism, at its heart, is a cultural encounter. Long, relaxed, unhurried stays by visitors who have time to meet, interact with and understand Belizeans and Belize not only means more money in our pockets for beds, food, drinks and tours; it produces the kind of relationships that small countries in a highly competitive world find increasingly necessary.”
[…]
“In short, Belize needs all the friends it can get: the richer and more powerful, the better. Overnight tourism promotes these valuable international personal relationships. Cruise tourism at best produces a few pennies for a few people; at worst a negative impression born of an impersonal encounter that puts us in the same category along with a dozen other forgettable destinations characterized by the slogan – “Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt”.”
For more of Mr. Krohn’s letter, visit: http://www.amandala.com.bz/index.php?id=10230
The Pandora’s box of cruise tourism is a temptation that many governments have succumbed to. It is unfortunate that policy makers like Mr. Singh seem to think that cruise tourism is the badge of a progressive and successful nation. Overnight tourism, and ecotourism are the bread and butter of this place. We don’t need cruise tourism, we need to further develop our existing product. The big problem with cruise tourism is that it will destroy overnight tourism. And once the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t put it back in.
No.
And funny how the “yes” votes on the right are accruing while there are no “yes” comments. Could it be because the poll software lets you clear your cookies and vote again? ……
Read the comments to see the true Placencia perspective.
Negative. Well said Lindsay Howard. Do we not aspire to be NATURE’S BEST KEPT SECRET’?
This is not the way.
Greedy choke puppy. Fact.
No.. simply no for all the right reasons…
Cruise ship tourism is a terrible idea.
It will ruin the charm of Placencia
NO!
As a resident of Placencia, I am totally against cruise tourism, since the minority of the people from the village will benefit from it !!!
We have to take care of our fragile Marine and Inland environments, if we don’t take care of them… who will !!
You kidding me.
Again you media types (I say that tongue in cheek) never research anything and just publish with out thinking.
Cruise ships are a disaster for small communities and with Placencia this will be the same.
Placencia is having a difficult time with the entire infrastructure thrown at them these past years on massive development and with this added cruise ship even more problems will arise.
Who will benefit. Not Belizeans and especially those in Placencia. Have you not looked at what is happening in Belize City? Who there gains tourist dollars, certainly not the local residents as the cruise people don’t even spend any time in Belize City. They just over crowd the sites outside of Belize City.
The cruise ships will come and stay for a short well then leave nothing behind but empty promises.
NO NO to any cruise ships coming to Placencia.
Those “YES” people, PLEASE, let’s hear your arguments!
Definitely NOT! It has already been proven that cruise visitors leave a huge environmental footprint on the country with only a select few benefiting financially. Belize needs to decide if they want to go the way of mass tourism like Cancun or protect itself and everything that makes it special and appealing by being eco-sensitive. You can’t have it both ways. I’m getting very tired of the GOB selling its (our) soul.
As a Placencia resident for 36 yrs, I vote “NO!!!!” to cruise tourism here.
Our Village Council has no ability to enforce any laws because Government has not enacted our Village by-laws. So how can we control anything, let alone cruise tourism? WHO do you think will have ‘control’??? Placencia will become just another generic destination, filling the coffers of only a few who could care less.
This decision must be made by WE who will suffer the consequences.
No…no…and no! Cruise tourism is certainly a bad choice for Placencia. My thoughts/justification resonate well with the aforementioned by Lindsay Howard. She captures the essence of potential adverse impacts quite well.
Interesting … of the 85 people who voted “Yes”, not one has articulated an argument supporting cruise tourism in Placencia. Hmph, maybe it’s because no such argument can be good enough or triumph over the arguments that have already been made on this poll against cruise tourism in Placencia.
NO
Cruise tourism would ruin the laid back atmosphere of Placeentia, and would discourage the type of tourists who would normally visit for this particular reason; let us not kill the goose that lay the golden egg to satisfy the greed of a few.
no way, let us keep the service for those people that spend more than one night. people open your eyes, majority of these people are from congested areas for sure they will not appreciate being congested in placencia. hey lets keep it like San Pedro fallow this example it works.
NO!!!! Again, NO!! As Annette so aptly put it “Greedy choke puppy”.
this is a definintely a choice that residents of placencia sould make. i do not live at the south but at the north…. so who am i to vote on a issue that will not directly fact me…. i would like to say no… but do not know the fact to make a vote… that is the real facts not the one that people place with out any proof. i have been to placencia many times and to me it if beautiful. a little expensive and still over crowded with tourist for me. so people of placencia (true people not the tourist that think they are now real residents, they also have a private agenda and they will always say that they have placencia in the hearts… not true.) make an educated choice with out any foreign people putting things and ideas in your head.
NO!
I have nothing else to say it has been written above in all kind of ways… NO NO NO.
Also let’s Belize be BELIZE. Which is a small country but so diverse, it can offer to every kind of tourists.
Cruise & Business in Belize City, Jungle and Cultural in Punt Gorda, Jungle and MAyan in CAyo, Falls and jungle in Mountain Pine Ridge, San Pedro and cAye CAulker: beach and islands and US in Placencia lucky to have beach, jungle, sea, wildlife etc… and even a small soon Cancun (not as a negative comments) on the North of our Peninsula. Let continue to concentrate on what we have and have been working for so long to achieve what we have today. AGAIN and for same reasons than ones posted above and surely soon below….. NO NO
I am a belizean, french born, maried to a Belizean have 2 belizean daughters and have been living in Placencia for 10 years, we run a Tour Operator business down there and I AM FULLY OPPOSED to Cruise in South. WE can afford to destroy that destinations.
Of course NOT!
I see everyone say “NO” for reasons like the tourist leave a bad carbon footprint… and only if the tourism money can be allocated to Belizean companies and what not… Are you kidding me? Those are your arguments?
First, let me give you a little lesson in economics. IF a tourist comes to this country and they spend their money here, and IF businesses are paying their taxes then the money is going to the country, period. Not to mention it is typical for businesses that are associated with tourism get taxed higher and it is very typical that foreign investment also gets taxed higher, so one would conclude that a foreign investment company that is in some sort of tourist business would get taxed through the roof.(And not to mention in this country the government is more likely to get that tax money if it is from a foreign investment company…) To add to this point, when you have competition in business the quality of service and products goes up and the cost goes down. So to the argument that money needs to get allocated to only Belizean companies and business, that is the worst idea ever simply because more money would be collected by the government if this was allowed. Which would lead to the many things that this country doesn’t have like a semi descent infrastructure…Now if there are a multitude of companies that happen to be Belizean owned, great, but we’re talking about MONEY coming into the country any way. Not to mention the tourists end up finding their way to one of the few saving graces of this country, Placencia, anyway. And people are arguing against more money coming into a country that needs it desperately? Now from a tourist perspective, you show up to this beautiful country and you try to spend your money at a restaurant… The waiter/waitress comes to your table with a stone cold look on their face, you place your order. From this point you will be really lucky if you get your drinks within 30min and your food in maybe an hour… If you’re really luck you’ll end up getting into an argument with the wait staff because they brought the wrong drink/food, you let them know this and the argument ensues… MY point is that service here SUCKS and Placencia is one of the few places that a person can get even an inkling of service. And you want to take that away from even more people who want to spend their money here? So from an economic stand point turning the cruise ships down would be a ghastly mistake.
Now to one of the other arguments tourists are leaving a bad carbon foot print… That’s like the pot calling the kettle black… I have seen more vehicles, than I care to count, driving up and down the roads with BLACK smoke coming out the tail pipe and sometimes the engine or other parts of the vehicle… And that’s not leaving a carbon foot print? People just throw trash wherever they want. What you don’t believe me? Take a look at the Western Highway next time you go for a drive, or any highway for that matter. The trash that isn’t just chucked to the side of the road is burned… And you want to complain about other people? Of course, how could I forget about the biggest environmental no, no which is rampant in this country, slash and burn. Belizeans just cut down the forest and burn what they can’t cut with their machetes. And that’s not leaving a carbon foot print? Before pointing the finger at someone else why do you point it at yourselves first? This country could be very pristine but Belizeans are to hell bent on the blame game than doing something about it. Why don’t you focus your energies on cleaning up your own country and worry less about fighting something that could bring tremendous improvement to this country…
To the last argument that I saw was that it would destroy the atmosphere of the town… To a certain extent I might agree. But think about this would this be something that happens year round? No, it would only be for a limited amount of time and then life could go back to usual… Why don’t you stop worrying about little things like a few tourist that come here on a cruise ship to spend their money here, which is a huge benefit to this country by the way… And start worrying about what you can do to improve the country? Like I said before many times the tourist find their way down there any way, so why do you try to improve what you’ve got, like the infrastructure, customer service, and cleaning up the country, to name a few…And then look at the benefits of what something like this would do for the country…
So I say YES…
absolutely NO
Cruise ships should only be in Belize city. nowhere else.
To anonymous (who won’t even give his or her name): please read the CESD study of cruise ship tourism in Belize. People pay for their cruises OUTSIDE the country. Cruise ship tourists don’t even pay a fraction of the amount of sales tax that overnight tourists do. And, of course, they generate NO hotel tax. The cruise ship companies themselves employ almost no Belizeans. The big tour operator companies do, but most of those people make less than BZ$50 per day, and few, if any, have the opportunity to move into management, as they do at Chaa Creek, Turtle Inn, Blancaneaux, The Palms, Holiday Hotel and other Belize resorts and hotels. They will also be coming in the HIGH season when Placencia already has overnight tourists who come, get to know the people, something about the culture and spend THOUSANDS of dollars on a vacation – not BZ$24-40 that cruise ship tourists spend in a destination. There’s more in the CESD study, which was commissioned by Belize’s own BTB. Read it yourself and learn something – http://www.responsibletravel.org/projects/documents/Belize%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
Where are you from, anyway?
Cruise ships to southern Belize is a very very bad idea. Who would want to come here with those cruise ships arriving and disgourging hundreds or thousands of pseudo-tourists who contibute little to the economy and a lot to degregation of the life style that brings the real tourists who come to learn about and enjoy the wonders of Belize.
NO!! Placencia is a paradise that will be destroyed by the cruise ship industry. The world doesn`t need another Cancun or Cabo San Lucas. I spent time in both BEFORE they were turned into Key West. Did you ever see Key West before in turned into LA.
Definitely not! Why spoil such a great place!
To Anonymous,
Have you ever been to a cruise ship port of call in the caribbean and tried to get good service after the cruise ship has pulled out? I say NOT! As soon as the cruise ship leaves everyone closes shop. What will this do to the other tourism sector?
We might as well pack it in and turn the peninsula into a theme park just for the cruise ship visitors.
We have visited Belize several times during the past 20 years and love its charm and how welcoming the local people are to tourists. In stark contrast, we have also visited other similar coastal towns in the Caribbean who have opened their ports to cruise ships and it is so unpleasant. The shops slowly over time have catered more and more to cruise ship tourists who spend all of 4 to 6 hours on land and less and less to those tourist who come to enjoy days on end of what the coastal towns have to offer. Whenever there is no ship in town, the place is deserted, leaving the real tourists, those of us who actually want to spend time in small towns like Placencia a sense of soemthing authentic missing. So from an outsider yet a big fan of your town, I ‘d day leave well enough alone. Focus on the real adventurous tourists, those of us who enjoy walking into town to get an ice cream cone, after spending the morning diving…let the cruise ships find another town to pop in and out of with just enough time to maybe have lunch!
We moved here quite a while ago from Jamaica and over the years have been to multiple Caribbean destinations. The damaging impact cruise ships have on their port of call and the people who live there is extensive. I emphatically say NO!
Stewart Krohn has done an admirable job explaining why cruise ship tourism is such a bad idea for Placencia. The only thing I would add is that the major cruise ship companies have consistently failed to live up to their own contractual and legal obligations, and have been caught over and over again violating labor laws and environmental regulations. It was Carnival that built a fake sewage-treatment system in one of their ships, so it looked like they were following the law while they were actually dumping raw sewage and trash in sensitive areas. They hire people from poor countries and force them to work up to 14 hour shifts with no overtime, and they allow no unions or bargaining. The working conditions are particularly awful for women, many of whom have to put up with constant sexual harassment. Several cases have surfaced of female employees being raped, and then fired when they report the crime.
Several studies in the tourism-economics literature have found a NET ECONOMIC LOSS to small countries who host cruise ships – when you count in the damage to natural resources, and the displacement of other higher-value tourists. Belize collects a few pennies, but also has to deal with the tourists’ trash. Given that cruise tourism does not lead to sustainable economic growth, the only reason governments approve is because there are kickbacks – a few people will benefit…the rest of us will pay the price.
As many people have said in this discussion – the precious jewel is completely wasted on day-trippers. Placencia is a fragile flower that can easily be trampled by crowds.