The Fort George Tourism Zone is always congested on cruise ship days. On a typical cruise ship day you'll be met with dozens of buses, horses pulling carriages and hordes of tour operators in vans and taxis.
It affects the guest experience, and, for years now, the BTB has been trying to solve a congestion problem - against a wave of protest from the small operators.
But, the effort continues, and now the BTB has to the new city council on board to resurrect the idea of moving the bus landing area to the Marion Jones Sports Complex parking lot.
But before they do that, they are holding a public consultation to make sure that the Marion Jones is the right fit for tour operators and the residents in the area. That consultation is happening right now, but before it started we spoke to a representative from BTB and the Fort George Tourism Management Committee about the new plan...
Noriko Gamero, Dir., Cruise and Destination Planning
"This has been an ongoing stakeholder consultation in an effort to do restructuring of the outside area of the cruise port in Belize City. We want to ensure that we enhance guest satisfaction, improve our rankings and ratings as overall best destination in the Caribbean. We've worked with many stakeholders consultation with the tour operators and tour guides over the last year and half, if not more. And we keep just trying to get feedback from the different stakeholders and different proposals and different ideas to try to move and reload the areas outside - which is congestion of traffic, congestion of people and just safety hazards around the area. Tonight is just one of those session with the stakeholders of this area, because we are trying to consider the possibility of using staging area here at the Marion Jones parking lot. So its also an effort to get the feedback of the residents as they would also be able to give us input on enhancing or bettering our proposals."
Hubert Pipersburgh, Chair., FGTZ Management Committee
"I think what we are trying to do is to manage the situation properly, because if anybody is familiar with the area - it's a very small and narrow and congested area. So what we want to do is to promote the safety of everyone involved. We don't want it to be a situation where people are just clambering the tour operators and the tourists just come off the boat and feel inundated by people who want. We want to do it where it's structured so we bring it out here. I agree that there are residents. That's the reason why we have the consultations so that we can engaged the residents in this area and say look this is what we want to do, we want you to be a part of that process. Tell us how we can make it better for you, if there is any problems, how can improve and if there are problems, how we can impact the quality of life in this area."
We'll have an update on the outcome of the consultation tomorrow. And while the proposed move is based on practical considerations that are all well and good, there are also political considerations - not least of which is the fact that before the March municipal elections, the Mayor said he wouldn't let the small operators be penned in at this remote location. Here are his remarks from February 2018:...
Bernard Wagner - PUP Mayoral Candidate
"We don't want our tour guides to be relocated at the Marion Jones Stadium, that's a no. We at the PUP City Council want to provide support for the tour guides in this plight that they are currently facing."
We'll keep following this one closely.
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