Belize Cruise Terminal: Good To Go Or Go Under?

[ColoradoLad]

http://www.belizetimes.bz/news/story/3741.shtml

 

BELIZE CRUISE TERMINAL: GOOD TO GO OR GO UNDER?

Negotiations continue between Carnival Cruise Line and the Port of Belize Ltd. (PBL), for the development of a cruise ship facility at Port Loyola in Belize City. Final discussions have concluded the language for a “Clarification Agreement” requested by the Prime Minister of Belize, Mr. Said Musa.

 

Carnival officials this week commented that they are “in full agreement” with the clarification that they are eager to bring the negotiations to a favorable conclusion.

 

But members of the Belize Tourism Association have been trying to derail the $100 million investment on the southside of Belize City. This had created chaos in the Association, with the President, Lucy Fleming, being accused of acting arbitrarily in wanting to sue the government and for retaining legal Counsel Loise Young Barrow to seek a judicial review of the contract, “without the voting support of the general membership”.

 

President of the Belize District chapter of BTIA, Alexandra Nicholson has accused the President of the Association of pursuing “a baseless lawsuit which is being seen by the general public as a follow up to the unsuccessful suit against GOB with the Chalillo Dam lawsuit”. (see report on page 3)

 

The wrangling among self –serving interests and opposing forces within the tourism industry is already giving Belize an international black eye. One tourism power broker has also been accused of wanting to further stymie the Carnival investment in favour of a competing cruise line in addition to furthering his own political agenda. This has created a delicate situation in the final days as Carnival ponders whether to proceed with their investment in a cloud of uncertainty.

 

However, the Port of Belize President Mr. Luke Espat and the Investment Executive of Carnival Cruise Line, Mr. Giora Israel, have both expressed confidence that the Prime Minister and people of Belize are pursuing the investment to its final conclusion.

 

A yea or nay deadline has been set for Friday, 12 November; when Carnival is expected to make a decision.

 

PBL President, Luke Espat has said that the “clarification agreement” is now compatible with the Prime Minister’s request, to put out in simple language, certain requirements in the agreement.

 

The “Clarification Agreement” of 1 November, 2004 amends the language to the agreement between the Government of Belize, Belize Cruise Terminal Limited and Belize Ports Limited for BCTL to develop, finance, manage, operate and use a cruise ship port in the Port Loyola area of Belize City.

 

The amended agreement clarifies that Carnival “agrees to utilize the services of Belizean entities, agencies, and nationals and agrees to employ Belizean workers in the navigation and docking of cruise ships in Belizean territorial waters”.

 

The investors have also agreed to adjust upward the Head Fees for Carnival passengers from $5.00 to $7.00 and that Carnival Lines are to be permitted a maximum daily average number of visitors per year of 14,000.

 

There however remains a sticking point. One highly influential person in the tourism industry who had first refused to be a party to the agreement for the Carnival multimillion-dollar investment, is quibbling over language, but is “now wishing to be made a party to the agreement…”. Neither Belize Ports Ltd. nor Carnival Lines have a problem with his involvement, but it is claimed that the Belize Tourist Board continues to be impossible.

 

The President of PBL, Mr. Luke Espat today commented: “We hope that the agreement will be concluded on Friday and we look forward to have a start up of the project, as we expect the “Clarification agreement” and other documents with be executed.”

 

He added that this joint-venture project between Carnival and PBL is a significant investment that should not be allowed to be derailed.

 

“We look forward with enthusiasm for the Prime Minister’s support for this project that will benefit all of Belize and more specifically, those people on the south side of Belize City”.

 

This project is a significant inward investment that is critically needed in our country at this time. Should the project get the green light it would allow an major economic upturn for our country.

 

Carnival has offered to invest $100m in the construction of a terminal facility for tourists arriving in Belize on its cruise ships. In addition to this facility, a hurricane resistant pier will be erected. This pier will connect the cruise ships to the mainland. The cruise ships will dock a few yards from the shores of Belize City and will allow tourists to walk to Belize City to buy local souvenirs, eat and drink at Belizean restaurants, and take local or out-district tours in a matter of minutes after the ships dock

 

In Cozumel, Mexico, there is a tourist facility similar to the proposed Belize Cruise Terminal, Puerta Maya. It was built by Carnival some three years ago with $30m. The facility also has a pier which connects the cruise ships not more that 50 yards away.

 

The terminal facility is stocked up with local businesses. Anything sells in Cozumel; hats, boots, belts, clay pots, carvings, artwork, jewelry and so much more. Puerta Maya consists of some 16 acres of land. There are 60 local stores and some 500 locals are employed directly. This does not include the taxi men, bartenders, tour guides, cooks, even hotel owners and others who benefit from the influx of tourists.

 

The Belize Cruise Terminal should consist of some 30 acres of land. We could safely say what locals in Cozumel benefit through Puerta Maya will be doubled in Belize. More Belizeans will be employed, and so many more will benefit indirectly.

 

One of the workers at Puerta Maya, Security Manager Cesar Zepeda explained that the arrival of Carnival and the investment in Puerta Maya has significantly changed Cozumel. “Every single job in our island is connected to tourism,” he said, “Tourism is the heartbeat of our economy.”

 

In one day, some four ships could dock outside Puerta Maya, which is just one of three Ports in the island. Every day a ships arrives. Cozumel with a population of some 200,000 invites about 2,500,000 visitors a year. They do so because everyone knows how much they can benefit from tourism.

 

Belize has so much more to offer than Cozumel. What the Belize Cruise Terminal would allow in Belize is an unbelievable transformation of Belizean lives, especially those in Southside Belize. Just imagine more money in your pockets. It would simply allow tourists to spend more time and money in our country.

 

Even hoteliers would benefit, explained Puerta Maya Manager, Mr. Alberto Uch Mezo. “Cruise tourism is like a promotion activity,” he remarked. With Cruise Tourism tourists can get “just a little bit of the country”. If they fall in love with what they see then they will surely come back. The most recent report indicated that the number of tourist arrivals (exclusive of cruise passengers), which includes arrivals at all border points both via land, air, and sea recorded a 3.3 percent increase during the months of January through September, 2004 over the same period of last year. This could be as a result of those cruise passengers who have come to Belize for a few hours and want more. An increase of cruise tourists would double to number of overnight tourist arrivals.

 

The attempts to stifle negotiations with Carnival for a much needed first class cruise terminal are damaging to our young country. It would sour the ‘Belize story’ to other legitimate investors that would be interested in looking at the potential of making other investment in Belize.

 

If there is no conclusion to the agreement by Friday, Carnival is likely to take its investment elsewhere, “and the misplaced ambition of a certain individual would have caused the delivery of a painful blow to the vibrant tourism industry in this country”, commented a member of the Belize Cruise Ship Association.

 

An investment of $100m clearly means economic prosperity for Belize and a bright future for Belizeans.

[mbisson]

The above article was on Nov 10. Nov 16 had this article

 

http://www.belizetimes.bz/news/story/3762.shtml

 

I had posted the entire article but have come back to remove it. Anyone interested can just click the above link. It's interesting.

[mbisson]

Here's a link to an editorial from Nov 21. Give some insight at least into what Belize Times thinks of the whole thing. Also, if you're interested you might want to search their site using the expression "cruise ship" several interesting things came up.

 

http://www.belizetimes.bz/editorial.shtml