A week ago we told you about the disgruntled terminal 1 tour operators who were complaining about loss of business. According to them, the doors for terminal 1 were closed on Tuesday morning, June 9th around 9 and tourists were being directed towards terminal 2 instead. Well, today we have more from the tour operators – this time it's the president of the Fort George Tourism Zone Tour operators and Taxi Union, Arton Bowen – he is saying it is way more than just these issues at the terminals; it's the overall system of operation at the tourism village that's unfair.

Arton Bowen -President, Fort George Tourism Zone Tour Operator and Taxi Union

"In terms of the issue affecting us directly as a union, there are several issue affecting us and one of the main issues is that we've been appealing to the BTB, to the police. And the last time we made an appeal to even the minister to try to assist us in putting a system in place that is fair for everybody and so tourist can enter in a move friendly environment but the thing is tha - truthfully speaking we've been in over 10 meetings venting our concerns upon the same issues but nothing has been done to address these issues. The last meeting that we were in was actually had a meeting with the top brass in the tourism police unit and we were assured that steps would be taken to solve these problems but nothing was done again. Given that the people doesn't have a pre-booked tour with these people, we're all considered freelance - it is the tourist when they come out decide who they want to go with. What is unfair is the way in which the system is being applied because BTB has the recommendation in terms of having categorised as a pre-booked tour. For instance, if you say I have people who are recommended to me, that would be categorised as a pre-booked tour and they then would be placed in an area with the pre-booked tour operators. But the difference is, the problem that we face with the referrals is different from - we don't have problem with people who have legitimate pre-booked tours because they're professionals, they have their signs, they wait for their guest and they leave. But on the other hand, the people with the referrals, they're the ones that then create the distraction because when the tourists come in - even if the tourist choose to talk to somebody else, they still would try to intervene, sometimes 4, 5 of them at one time aggressing the tourists. Are you looking for me? Are you looking for me? Yelling out their names what have you. In terms of solving that particular problem, I think it's very simple. In terms of the information when the guests come in, when these guests are coming in, there are 2 options because they are 2 different kinds of guests. Pre-booked guests and there is walk out guests. The guests that are pre-booked could be directed to where they can find their pre-booked tours and the guests who are not booked can be directed to the area where they can then decide what to do. This way everyone have a fair chance to do something."

According to Bowen, there are two types of tour operators on the ground – the pre booked tour operators and the freelance tour operators. Bowen represents the freelance operators who are rallying for this change in the system. We will keep on following this story to get a comment from BTB or FSTV - both of which we have tried to contact but we got no response from the BTB, and pure bluster from the FSTV.