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Krohn and overnight tourism interests in Placencia have been opposing the plan from the very start – and today he told us, he still believes it can be vigorously and effectively opposed – especially the head tax:

Stewart Khron - BTIA, President, Placencia
"All I can say is that I hate to bring back this crackhead analogy - but I know crackheads on the street who are better negotiators than the people who negotiated this agreement. To say that you are now limiting yourself, you will review the head tax once every five years? Do you think the Income Tax or the GST department can make a commitment to review the GST only once every five years? This is insanity and then after five years and they somehow summon the courage to raise it by $1.00, which is the limit to which they will raise it, out of the $1.00 then $0.50 is going to go to NCL? This is the ultimate crackhead MOU."

Jules Vasquez
"It will happen - like it or not."

Stewart Khron
"Who says it will happen, like it or not? It not over until it's over Jules. You of all people know that in Belizean politics, strange events can intervene. Next week you might see an NCL ship crash on the Belize reef - with that be a game changer? Yes it would. Whenever someone tells you that it's a done deal - what they're really telling you is that might not be a done deal but they would love for it to be a done deal. I would like to tell people out there - particularly people outside of the South who might be sitting on the sidelines and saying 'well yeah I kind of sympathize with the people down there, but it's a done deal so I'll just shut up'. It's not a done deal and we've seen before in Belizean history, if the people raise their voices loudly enough then even done deals can be undone."

Yesterday, the Vice President of Destination and Strategic Development for Norwegian said that he is disappointed in the position taken by BTIA particularly because they rejected the proposal before they even knew properly what it is.

Here are his comments from the press conference:

Colin Murphy - VP, Destination And Strategic Development For Norwegian Cruise Line.
"I was a little disappointed, we've seen this many time in many different countries where big developers are coming in to somehow damage their business. I think over a period of time the leadership of BTIA will see that and along with their members."

Manuel Junior Herredia - Minister of tourism
"They refuse even to listen, sometimes being very disrespectful - that is not what we want from these people that are supposed to be guiding this industry. Our job and my job as the Minister of Tourism is to make sure that we grow in the industry together."