The crisis in the cruise tourism industry broke on January third, when tender operators first heard that Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian wanted bigger tender operators to ferry tourists to shore and at a lower price per head. Normally at least three large ships could be seen on the horizon with thousands of tourists ready […]
Importers of butane have now agreed to a new price formula depending on the grade of the gas. On Wednesday, however, representatives from the Liquid Petroleum Gas importers, at a press conference, alleged that their competitor, Belize Western Energy Limited, was selling inferior quality butane because the company mixed imported product with the cheaper product […]
So why wasn’t BWEL a part of the press conference called by the importers? Via Phone: Jose Mai “We felt that this movement was headed by the two local companies which are Belize Gas and Western Gas, owned by a father and son. They were being premature in threatening government with a strike for today […]
Cooler heads prevailed today and a scheduled shutdown of butane depots did not take place after all. Instead four major importers, Grupo Tomza, Z Gas, Western Gas Company and Belize Gas Company met with the Belize Natural Energy and government representatives. This follows a meeting in Cabinet on Tuesday where it was agreed that the […]
Butane importers are planning to close businesses this Wednesday to protest competition coming from Belize National Energy. BNE says it can retail butane for prices much cheaper, about thirty-five percent less per hundred pound cylinder, than the importers, but it can only supply for now, thirty percent of the country’s demand. The Liquid Petroleum Gas […]
Cruise tourism continues to spin out of control. Today only one Carnival line called on port; that’s the Valor, but the Dream with a capacity of three thousand nine hundred passengers did not make it to port. It gets worse for the rest of the week when the cancellations will mean that at least ten […]
Will there be a shutdown of butane gas outlets this Wednesday? That’s what is being threatened by Belize Gas Company Limited, Western Gas Company Limited, Zeta Gas Limited and Gas Tomza Limited. It all has to do with the production of butane by Belize Natural Energy, at prices that the importers say cannot be undersold. […]
There’s grim news in cruise tourism; this week alone ten thousand passengers will not be coming to the Jewel. That’s because there will be a noticeable absence of Carnival cruise ships from our waters this week as four of its vessels; namely the Dream which was scheduled to call on Belize on Tuesday, Glory which […]
On Thursday night we reported that the Novelo brothers are now running the Belize Diesel buses, formerly operated by Lopez Shuttle in Belize City. The brothers have formed a new company called Arrow Line which uses the buses to provide an air-conditioned ride in the West Landivar/Downtown route. But the new run comes with its […]
The price of fuel keeps soaring, premium is selling for a whopping ten dollars and forty nine cents per gallon. Just about everything is going up and if you ride the City, bus you might just have to dig deeper in your pocket. Since Wednesday, a number of commuters, adults as well as school children, […]
And while Kevan Jenkins told us off camera that the Traffic Department has not received any proposal from the Novelo brothers for the new bus run, Spokesperson for Arrowline, Philip Jones, said they have proof of the proposal and did get the approval for it. Philip Jones, Spokesperson, Arrowline Services “We have Belize Intransit; we […]
When we checked today, cruise lines are still on schedule for Friday but the future of tender operations remains up in the air. Three lines called on port today: Carnival Valor, Aida Luna and Seven Seas Navigato. Their passengers were ferried to the Fort Street Tourism Village by Eurocaribe. Despite having recently formed an association […]
There’s another development in the two week old tendering dispute. There’s word that Carnival intends to cancel stops in Belize on Thursday and that Royal Caribbean along with Norwegian Cruise Lines are bound to follow suit. As it stands tonight, an agreement on the price to transport tourists from the cruise ships to the Fort […]
A new fee called a rider’s tax was unexpectedly imposed on domestic flights since Saturday. The tax ostensibly will be used for the expansion of the Belize City municipal airstrip, a project estimated to cost in the range of thirteen million dollars. Whether the tax is permanent, has not been determined, but what we can […]
We can report tonight that Carnival Cruise lines will not be calling on port this Tuesday. The reason is that the local tendering operations are not satisfactory to the cruise line. That’s the latest word coming from the newly formed Association of Tender Operators, which is now being led by Jason Marin after the sudden […]
At midnight, the prices of fuel went up for the second time in two weeks. If you are reeling from that hike, well hold on because the prices of butane gas are also up. The hundred pound cylinder shot up by four dollars over all. The price changes were approved last Friday and the next […]
The following story is not about crime, but it will deal a cruel blow to consumers. So if your vehicle’s tank can hold anymore fuel then best you head out to the gas station and fill up before midnight. As you’ve probably figured out by now, fuel prices will take another hike just two weeks […]
There’s a major upset to an announcement made by the prime minister on Monday that Carnival Cruise Line had agreed to a stay of execution in the new tendering policies by the cruise lines. All day today, the newly formed association of tender operators has been meeting on what seems to be a reversal of […]
The Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) is a powerful lobby of fourteen cruise lines that operate in the Latin America and the Caribbean. Their combined power can make or break the multi-million dollar industry in Belize. Their mission is to advance the development of cruise ship tourism which means that improved standards at destinations along […]
Earlier in the week, Belize Natural Energy’s Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager, Daniel Gutierrez, appeared on Open Your Eyes to discuss the future of the oil industry in Belize. Gutierrez revealed that BNE’s exploration license was about to run dry and the company was hoping for the government to allow an extension or renegotiation. But […]
Belize National Energy is one of about a dozen registered oil companies in Belize. It has the distinction of being the only company that has found oil in commercial quantity. The oil taxes play a significant role in the country’s revenues; in fact BNE is the biggest tax payer to government. BNE has found oil […]
Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines have agreed to, for now, to hold back on a new policy on tendering. How long the delay will last is not known, what is, is that there is bound to be displacement after the new policy kicks in. That’s the message Prime Minister Dean Barrow brought back […]
Tour operators are banking that a full blown crisis in cruise tourism may be averted when a delegation of tourism representatives, including the Prime Minister, meets with representatives of Carnival Cruise Lines in Miami this weekend. The operators attended a special meeting late this evening with Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Jr. along with officials from […]
The situation remains fluid for tender operators in cruise tourism. Late last week, two catamarans owned by a US company landed at the Blue Creek Port as part of a new deal to take over the tendering process. The tender operators have invested heavily in the business and were clearly taken by surprise at what […]
Earlier our viewers polled that fuel prices should be brought down as promised by the prime minister. Prices for premium and regular gasoline are now over the ten dollar mark, but the PM says he is not about to revisit the one-dollar tax that he imposed a few years ago and promised to revisit. The […]
