7 News Belize

Trouble in Paradise? Norwegian Cruise Ships Divert From Harvest Caye
posted (February 2, 2017)
This morning, it raised a lot of eyebrows within the Tourism Industry when - for the second time in as many days - a Norwegian Cruise line ship called the Norwegian Dawn, didn't go to NCL's Harvest Caye to make the scheduled call. This morning, instead of taking its 2,200 guests to NCL's private cruise port off Placencia, the Norwegian Dawn diverted to the Fort Street Tourism Village in Belize City, after making hasty arrangements with the Management to add them on the list of calls today.

The same thing happened yesterday when the Norwegian Getaway, another ship carrying 4,000 guests, didn't make its scheduled port call at Harvest Caye on Wednesday. So what's wrong at Harvest Caye? We tried to get a comment from the BTB, but they didn't respond. One group of people who weren't complaining, however, were the local tour operators who could make money from tours with the Norwegian Dawn's passengers - who are known to spend more than Carnival's cruisers.

So, the appearance of an NCL ship in the Belize City harbour today, was a sudden and unexpected stroke of good fortune. This evening, we spoke to Tom Greenwood, the President of FECTAB, about the real time effect of the Dawn's call in Belize City:

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Has there been a palpable difference on the ground?"

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"Absolutely, all our members our here are ecstatically happy. It's like praise God something is happening because for weeks these people have been making zero cents."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Is this because Norwegian cruisers have more disposable income?"

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"Norwegian has always been good with us. That's why when Norwegian was coming we were so happy. People could be paying their bills. When Norwegian disappeared it slam-dunk us some 60 percent. We went down. right down into the gutters and this is despite the fact that it was told to me across the highest table in the land that one of the conditions for Norwegian been given the ok down south is that they would continue coming to Belize City."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"Now I am trying to find the information here, but my information says that Norwegian only has 4 planned calls to Belize City in 2017 previous to this. Is that how awful the prognosis is?"

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"That is how awful it is. We just simply Jules, do not know. We are praying to the heavens above that this will continue. One ship for the week at least will help us come out of the doldrums and certainly if we went back to anywhere close to the levels where they were before or even half of that, it would mean the members of FECTAB which is just about anybody out there, will be able to sigh, ease back a little and say thank you God."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"So, to what would you ascribe this bump in revenue?"

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"I've been thinking of course the Norwegian coming back to at least one ship today. Of all the many reasons and I've always said that anything that will change the sick situation here in Belize is an act of God, political will or revolution. I get the feeling this one is an act of God. Did something happen at harvest key? I am told by some people that there may be some damage to the wharf there. I have not been able to ascertain that."

Jules Vasquez, 7News
"You do know in this case that if they are having such difficulty at Harvest Caye that it will take a time for them to resolve it?"

Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"Well I'm glad you said that, because we try to laugh through our perils and one very senior representative of government looked at me and said, 'well I tell you what Tom, if damage has been done there I hope it takes them 2 years to repair it.'"

This evening, NCL's public relations personnel from Miami responded to a request for information with an email explaining the two cancelations. Their statement says, quote, "Norwegian Cruise Line received reports of an obstruction in the channel leading to Harvest Caye, Belize. In an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety of all guests and crew, two calls to the port were cancelled while a team inspects the area. As a result, Norwegian Getaway spent the day at sea on February 1 and Norwegian Dawn called on Belize City on February 2. End Quote.

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