Will there be a cruise tourism terminal in Placencia? In October the issue flared into public attention as community lobbyists on both side of the issue came forward to transpose the peninsula's debate unto the national discourse. That was timed to coincide with a round of consultations by The Ministry of Tourism, and the Belize Tourism Board where the officials and technocrats were bombarded with the pro's and con's of the controversial proposal. But those weren't just talk shops or sounding off sessions, a group called Seatone consultants was hired to cull the collective wisdom of those meetings and compile a report representing the general concensus.
That report has been finalized and in summary it says: "The government of Belize should not approve a new port of call, contract or agreement with cruise lines, developers or their affiliates for operations in the Placencia Peninsula."
So there it is: with that death blow the proposal looks to be pretty much dead.
And, tonight - at this hour, representatives of the BTB and the ministry are in Placencia on the community Basketball Court presenting the report to the community.
They held a press conference this afternoon before they left and CEO Lindsey Garbutt told us that they are not going against the wisdom of the consultations:
Lindsey Garbutt, CEO BTB
"We believe that once you go to consultations you should respect the results of the consultation. So in saying that the consultation is not recommending any cruise ship tourism development in Placencia peninsula, we are prepared to respect that."
Jules Vasquez
"Is this the formal and final position of the government of Belize? Or, do you foresee that it will be adopted by the government of Belize as its final position?"
Lindsey Garbutt, CEO BTB
"I think this government is known for accepting rational recommendations. I do not pretend to speak for the government of Belize in the way you are suggesting. The Prime Minister is the one that has that responsibility. But the results of these recommendations have been shared and I think he has said that he is going to respect the results of this recommendation as far as development of a cruise ship port in Placencia is concern."
Jules Vasquez
"Will there in your opinion be a port in the south sometime in the foreseeable future?"
Lindsey Garbutt, CEO BTB
"You know that i am from the south and I concur with you that there is a need for development in the south. I am just hoping that when we do it we will do it based on sound and careful plan development and analysis to the extent that it is done in a very organized way that brings benefit to a wide variety of stakeholders. So I am saying I think we need to do it. I just think we need to be careful and again like the director said it needs to be done within the context of the entire master plan that we are spending so much time and focus on."
Seleni Matus, Director of Tourism
"We can say that that master plan is coming with specific recommendations around that. So we would be happy to share with you and the wider community what those specifics are and later this year the master plan will be completed and launched mid-year."
The consultations to share the findings go to Punta Gorda tomorrow night at the St. Peter Claver Parish hall and to Dangriga on Wednesday at the Father Phillip Marin Parish Hall….
You can find a link to the full report at 7newsbelize.com…
http://www.belizetourism.org/content/view/280/370/.
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