A few weeks ago, local tour guides were complaining about the new regulations being implemented at the Caves Branch Reserve. The complaint was that the more stringent regulations and uneven enforcement were putting them at a disadvantage against their main competition: the big foreign owned tourism investors.
Today our cameras were called out to the Fort Street Tourism Village where the complaints continue. One of the souvenir vendors we spoke to claims that he has been harassed by authorities all week. He said he has been operating as a souvenir vendor for the past ten years. He approaches tourists at the entrance with his handcrafted souvenir holder and convinces them to purchase his products. That is how he makes his living. But now authorities are not allowing him to operate on the streets which is where all the business is. He refused to speak to us on camera fearing victimization.
Voice of: Tourism Vendor, Cruise Terminal 1
"We have a business where we sell local products like handmade products that we make for tourists who come to Belize to take back something as a memory. We have a way of interacting with the tourists and sometimes maybe they don't even want to buy our product or so, but allowing us to speak about our country and different things, people get interested and they would assist us. Then all of a sudden nobody informed us that they were going to cut us down dramatically like that. They just shed us down. I have bills to pay. I have my family and I would just like for the people in authority to be more lenient and to just look upon this, because I feel like what is good for one is good for all. If you are telling me that this thing is across the board and yet at the end of the day I am the one that is only the one person that is suffering from this, then I think that is not balance."
Emanuel Pech
"What are they telling you? Why can't you go out there and interact with the tourists to sell your product?"
Voice of: Tourism Vendor, Cruise Terminal 1
"Basically what they are saying is like the tourists has been getting hackle from everyone, not only from me as a vendor. They are talking about everyone. As you notice all these people that are standing in front of the gate - the people from the ships, they are complaining. This is not something personal. This is something across the board. So why only I am affected by this?"
Valdemar Andrade, Director of Destination Planning and Cruise at BTB, told us via telephone that he hears the concerns of the local vendors but that BTB must do what it can to ensure the safety of visitors. Andrade also noted that there have been several complaints from cruise ships that their passengers are relentlessly harassed by locals at the entrance of the cruise terminal.
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