Last night we told you about the concerns of the independent tour operators at Fort Street Tourism Village. Now, this is certainly not the first time we've heard discontent around and about the Fort Street Tourism Village.
Earlier this year the freelance tour operators outside the gates were complaining that they are not getting a fair share of the business and that the system is set up to deliberately cut them out of the picture. Well, the independent tour operators on the inside - are the ones now saying that management is trying to run them out of business through various strategies, including increasing their passenger insurance requirement. Our reports say that now the FSTV Management is requiring a major increase in insurance coverage for passengers; from two hundred thousand per guest, to 2 million! That would send insurance premiums through the roof - and that kind of insurance police would have to be purchased from international vendors in US dollars - it's not available locally.
Today, the BTB's Director of Cruise and Regional Initiatives Valdemar Andrade told us he is not aware of any insurance increase and that the BTB wouldn't implement of approve any regulation that would alienate these operators.
Valdemar Andrade - Director, Destination Planning & Cruise, BTB
"I haven't seen anything certainly nothing from FCCA requiring anybody to have more insurance. I know that for people who are contracted, yes there is a 2 million dollar requirement who are contracted by the ships. That's a requirement from the ships that they have to have ship-line insurance agent that is able to do that and what that insurance offers is liability coverage. And it also offer global coverage, which means that they can get that cost covered anywhere in the world and so that is why that insurance is put in place. But that is only for contracted operators as far as I know. As far as I know, no, not for independent. BTB will always protect the independent operators. The independent operators have always been a part of the cruise industry in Belize. They also ensure that there is a variety of tour offerings for the country and anything that will adversely affect the independent operators we would certainly not support and so if there is any of those aspects that anybody is going to put on the ground - 1) it require notice, due notice because the independent operators now have their current coverage and because its high season, most of them have renewed at this point in time and so it require due notice. It also require us to ensure that they are not - how can you require somebody to have added insurance and then say that you are going to move them back or move them out because they would not be in the frontline to make business to pay that insurance coverage and the other cost that they have. The state of play for the cruise industry is their revenues that the ship looks on. One of the key revenues that the ship looks on is tour operations and so they will always look at how they can increase their business. Remember they are paying to come here. They pay a tax, they pay different port fees to be in the country which adds up to millions and millions of dollars in taxes for us and also they are bringing their customers and so they are always looking to see how they can best positioned themselves. We always end up with a 60/40 split or 50/50 split in tours independent and cruise and the cruise lines. And so we try to manage that appropriately, because we think that both need to win. But yes, we wouldn't favor one over the other at any one point in time."
And tomorrow two Carnival cruise ships are making a call on Belize, that's when the same independent operators expect that they'll be pushed back away from the dock so that they can't make any sales pitch to pre-booked passengers.
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