7 News Belize

Tenders Operators Say Carnival Is Squeezing Them Out
posted (January 4, 2011)
You may not be familiar with the term boat tenders - those are the massive, locally made vessels that pick up cruise visitors from their ships and carry them to the Fort Street Tourism Village.

The local boat operators have been providing the service to Carnival Cruise lines for 14 years - but today they were told, it ends, on Thursday because Carnival has now engaged a foreign provider to service them with bigger tender vessels. It's a tremendous and unexpected blow to these local businessmen who have invested millions in these massive boats. This evening, we found them outside Eurocaribe - the shipping agent that used to hire them - looking for answers or some kind of remedy:….

Jason Marin, Triple J Tenders
"As of Thursday this week this new guy, this new company will take over tendering for the Carnival Cruise Lines. They had a meeting yesterday in Miami and the vice president for Carnival stated that no tender under 150 passengers capacity will be able to work."

Jules Vasquez
"Do any of our tenders in Belize meet that requirement?"

Jason Marin, Triple J Tenders
"Our local guys....no."

David Almendarez, Starly Boat Tenders
"It's just like if somebody tells you you are fired. We showed up this afternoon and they say well guys the bigger fishes are here, you small fish are fired."

Luis Marin, Reef Beauty Charters
"Shock, just feel shock, I don't know what to say about it. It's a shame."

Myron Marin, 3 Star Tours - employs 30
"I just found out about 2-3 days ago that this was happening, no kind of warning it's just like a bomb thrown to us. I am here with my other local guys just trying to ask questions. Right now it's basically what to do, where to go to? Where can we get some answers, some real answers on this situation of what's happening. We don't know but we are concern because all of our livelihood are here in this business that we have created nothing to something and now somebody that we don't even know is coming here and taking it over."

Jules Vasquez
"How will this affect you in the immediate, in the short term?"

Luis Marin, Reef Beauty Charters
"This affect me completely right now, I get stand still, I can't do anything with my boats them."

Jules Vasquez
"So you have workers, you have employees, so what will you tell them?"

Luis Marin, Reef Beauty Charters
"Well I have to go and talk to them, tell them that somebody else is taking over, Everybody needs to come together and talk to the government, what they are doing to all these people who will be out of work."

Myron Marin, 3 Star Tours - employs 30
"We just made a bog investment to hit this high season of 5-6 tender boats."

Jules Vasquez
"How big?"

Myron Marin, 3 Star Tours - employs 30
"80 - 120 passengers' boats."

Jules Vasquez
"How much is the investment roughly?"

Myron Marin, 3 Star Tours - employs 30
"For this season alone probably about 3 million dollars, so definitely I will be directly affected by this."

Jason Marin, Triple J Tenders
"It's really putting us at a disadvantage, we have huge mortgages, our homes and different things, we have - just our family alone have about 3 million dollars invested in these boats."

Luis Marin, Reef Beauty Charters
"The government, the Prime Minister should try to put a stop on this kind of thing that is happening. There will be so much people with so much tender left out. So much money invested, so much people that are working and then to bring in foreigners and offers the workers little bit of money because they can't do better."

Jason Marin, Triple J Tenders
"You are looking at hundreds of people getting affected in a time like now just to benefit a few people or foreigner."

David Almendarez, Starly Boat Tenders
"This is the last frontier for Belizeans. This group of people that you see here, we are 100% Belizeans, we are born here, some of us have started this industry - they can tell you about using their 20 foot boats, doing 20 trips a day systematically they have been breaking it down and now you have a few well connected Belizeans coupled with foreigners trying to swipe everybody."

Jason Marin, Triple J Tenders
"Jules to tell you the truth we appreciate the business but we all believe that if the Belizeans won't be able to eat from it well best we all stand and make an example because every time the foreigners come in and walk over us and there is nothing the Belizeans do, everybody sit back and just enjoy the ride while we get screw."

David Almendarez, Starly Boat Tenders
"They are all silent assassins, there is nobody who come and say this is happening. Everything you find is when it's happening. It's systematically for a few people to get rich and for the majority to get poor while we wait to start 2011."

The boat owners gathered today own a combined 25 TENDERS which employ about 75 persons on the boats. A few local tenders can carry 150 passengers, but the bulk of the tender vessels are those who can carry 90 - 110 passengers….

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