Prime Minister meets with Carnival representatives

The future of boat tenders hangs in the balance. As we mentioned on Thursday Prime Minister Dean Barrow is heading a delegation of four including Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Jr., Chief Executive Officer Lindsay Garbutt and Director of Tourism Seleni Matus to deliberate with cruise line representatives in Miami on their new tender policies.  Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines recently announced that all tenders are required to have a seating capacity of no less than a hundred and fifty passengers and that they must have protection and indemnity insurance amounting to two million U.S. dollars.

Dean Barrow

News Five understands that the team met with Carnival reps this morning and was in session with officials from Royal Caribbean in the afternoon. There is still no definitive word from Miami on the outcome of the discussions but the delegation is due back home on Sunday. The sit-down comes at the end of an intense week for local tender operators, who found out on Monday that their livelihoods were at risk when two catamarans were brought in from the United States to transport tourists onto the shores of Belize City. We’ll have more on this on Monday.