| FECTAB Fuming Over Ashcroft Alliance Port Proposal |
| Tue, January 19, 2016 |
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| Earlier in our newscast we told you about the plight of the small local tour operators brought into clearer focus by the rumblings with Dark Night tours. Well that is not the only rumble in this delicate industry. There's also the latest developments with Stake Bank - where developer Mike Feinstein says the mega project has been put off because the Barrow administration wants to partner with a private developer for a Cruise Port at the Port of Belize. The frontrunner for that public-private partnership is the Ashcroft Alliance, which already owns the Port. Today the president of the Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations of Belize, known as FECTAB told us that the thought of Ashcroft as a potential partner in the Port of Belize project leaves a bitter taste in their mouths.
Tom Greenwood - President, FECTAB
"Well we already are being hurt by a well-healed foreign tour operator in Belize, who lowered prices on us and causes us to go into a tailspin, because we then had to lowered prices among ourselves. So whenever big money shows up, we naturally fear of losing the little that we have achieved with a lot of hard work. Where Port of Belize is concern we are thinking it's a larger place. There is going to be a pier, that pier is going to be about a mile long and then when they come to the end of the pier, people who are there - how much longer to reach a gate and say the outside. So those of us who are right now on the outside of the Fort Street Tourism Village luckily were right on the outside of the door. But if and when the Port of Belize should kick in, what are the distances involved? What are going to be the fees for us to operate inside? Who is making arrangements, bearing in mind the local tourism population? How do we access? Do we get sympathy and get some help, whatever - we are fearful. The Port of Belize scares the living daylights out of us."
The prime Minister has remained vague in the matter, simply saying that government would welcome such an Ashcroft investment in the Port.
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