Multimillion Dollar Placencia Waterfront Project Inaugurated

While residents in the south have objections to the Norwegian Cruise Line project at Harvest Caye, they welcome the construction of a pier, plaza and promenade in Placencia. The facilities are part of the National Sustainable Tourism Master Plan undertaken by the Belize Tourism Board which sets out to highlight the south eastern coast of Belize including Placencia. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was present for the inauguration of three million dollar project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The Placencia Municipal Pier, Plaza and Sidewalk Project was inaugurated on the peninsula this afternoon before a gathering of government officials and tourism stakeholders.  The project which aims to invigorate the history of the village by enhancing the tourism product began in 2009.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism

Manuel Heredia Jr

“This pier if i can recall, the consultations started in 2009 but it actually started last year. It is something designed almost to blend in what use to be in the past. As you know the Placencia village had been traditional fishing village and the fishing coop has been one of the pillars of the economy of Placencia. We try to capitalize between the fishing coop and the tourism sector and hence a model like what you see today was created.”

The total cost of the project, including a tiered pier two hundred and seventy-five feet in length, a waterfront shoreline plaza and promenade is valued at three million dollars.  Construction took approximately seventeen months to completion.

Manuel Heredia Jr.

“The tourism industry will be able to benefit a lot and at the same time the Placencia fishing coop will be able to capture form this and they can diversify into something that is more tourism which is something that all the fishing coop should have done a long time ago. I applaud the initiative of the Placencia producer coop. If you see at our back they are already doing a complex behind there. Which again they have been very smart and they are working towards the goal that we believe the tourism industry will be a big foreign investment.”

The project was funded by the Sustainable Tourism Program with counterpart funding by the Belize Tourism Board. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.