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The Placencia Peninsula is sixteen miles of natural sandy beach with a mangrove-fringed lagoon and people from diverse cultures… it is rated as one of the top overnight destinations in Belize. In a phrase The Peninsula epitomizes "Nature's Best Kept Secret"….. The residents of the Peninsula however, are wondering for how long it will remain the best kept secret as there are plans in the pipeline to introduce cruise tourism which translates to a cruise village for placencia. And as we found out today there are many villagers who are strongly against this but they do understand the opposing views:

David Vernon: Vice-Chairman BTIA
"I think we need to be specific: the cruise village in Placencia, because there seems to be a controversy, as was mentioned by one of the callers that called in on the talk show a couple of days ago. The people that came from the IDB was suggesting to putting it in communities that don't have an industry and they will benefit greatly from it, but we already have an industry here in Placencia so to bring a cruise village in Placencia would be devastating for Placencia."

Ann Marie McNeil: Owner Avadon Divers
"As a representative of Avadon Divers we have no interest in the cruise ship at all. We find that we will be making very little money from that business, most of our guests come here and are looking for special first class service and they are willing to pay for that. In addition they stay with us for a few days and get to know our crew, get to know the dive areas and feel for Placencia. Those are the kind of guests we want to go after. And we actually make more money from these kinds of guests; the overnight guests."

Janice Leslie: Trade Winds Hotel/Jay Bird's
"If you take it from the example we have in Belize City it does not look good for the locals because as far as I can see in Belize its only the bigger people make money and the poor people they don't have nothing. They go out there and they work and they slave and there is still nothing to show for it. What is in this cruise business for us the people of Placencia? It's very interesting that all of a sudden Placencia is discovered and they are giving us so much and they are not asking if we really want it. I hear about the cruise ships coming in, I hear about the widening of the sidewalk, I hear about them repairing the bridge, all of this was needed years ago; why all of a sudden the three things are coming in together? I don't understand. When you ask them about it, IDB is giving us money for a sewage system which I think does not make any sense because we had a meeting the other night and they couldn't answer our questions. To me they are only interested in the money."

Adrian Vernon: Environmental Activist
"While people look at cruise tourism and a lot of people look at the dollar sign. What people don't realize the small dollar signs that are placed there are not anything close to the trade off that you have environmentally. You are looking at people that are crowding your area; you are looking at a lot of waste created. These guys want to go out in the cayes; they are going to be torturing the cayes, too many people on one small island, too much people on the reefs. When you look at our entire area right here one of the reasons they want to come here is because they figuring out that there is a very nice lagoon; we are going to use jet skis, we are going to use water skis, it's never too rough for us to use these things. But when you look at that, you are looking at problems for dolphins that are here almost every day or manatees are already having a big stress on them because of development itself on the peninsula where are a lot of their food resource is being destroyed. Now you are looking at stressing them with engines that are very disturbing to them in terms of noise running all over the place. These types of water vessels run over shallows - it doesn't matter. So you are looking at them intruding right over what is remaining of their feeding grounds. It's not a trade off that we need to make. Our overnight passengers come, they want to go out and take a quiet tour on the lagoon where they can go through the small channels and the crevices in the mangroves, enjoy the natural beauty, enjoy the wild life, you are going to be losing all of that so it's not something that is going to be anywhere good for our community."

Charles Leslie Sr- Co-Owner Kingfisher Adventure Ltd.
"I think it will be totally detrimental to what we have fought for, for all those years to bring and to maintain and to sustain Placencia in the peaceful manner that we had anticipated that Placencia tourism would have been today. I think that Placencia people on a whole have done that together to bring Placencia as a peaceful tourism destination in Belize."

While they are strongly against it other residents say that they need to be properly informed of the pros and cons before they can take a stand:

David Torres, Water Board Member
"Truly to say I am a bit confused because, one: information is lacking, and that's one of the ways to go. If we the locals and the people of Placencia get information, and I mean information, on a logistic basis, and transparency, we can make better decisions. But on the other hand I want to say that Placencia has potential for a lot of development, a lot of opportunities and I am not against development or opportunities, but I am for sustainable and control too, especially when it comes to the environment and most of all what the locals can benefit out of this cruise tourism."

Glen Eiley, Former Chairman
"Well I in no way, shape or form will support a cruise village in my village, let me state that very clearly. I would not want to see wall come up and people get boxed out because my village is a tourist village, its already built, our amenities has to improve. We have to deal with our infrastructure, I refuse to say yes or no for obvious reasons. I don't know what I am saying 'no' to and I don't know what I am saying 'yes' to. I want to hear the full story, there is a lot of information and I think there is a lot of misinformation even a hint of politics has gotten into this thing and it's unfair to us because we have not been given - I say we because I can speak for most of the tour guides - we have not been given our fair share to say and everybody is like 'what are we waiting for?' Well what am I speaking for or against? That's what I am waiting for. I want to hear, I want to have some hard questions for the Royal Caribbean representative. I have some hard questions for the BTB. We must benefit from this otherwise we can't say no."

Warren Garbutt: Boat Captain& Tour Guide
"It's difficult for me to make a position and for the main reason being, not enough is known, however I personally think that the village could do with some form of cruise tourism. I am not saying no to it, I am not saying yes, I am just saying that with proper control, with some work being done by the government and also by the cruise companies putting things in place with a proper plan and management of that plan I think it can probably work."

Opponents, proponents and the undecided will now joust it out in a consultation series and a public relations battle that is sure the have the quiet peninsula in an uproar for weeks to come.

It is a complex issue with many varying viewpoints and we'll have more of those in part two of this story on Monday night's newscast.