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FECTAB is fuming again. This time the subject of their ire is BELTRAIDE.  That’s because the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service and Taiwan have set up two exchange investment missions between both countries. They hope to increase foreign direct Investment in priority industries - like tourism.  

And that’s where FECTAB says they are again being left out.  They say the big fish always get more, while the small fish like their members are left without:

David Almendarez - FECTAB
"Taiwan the give us serious money because they want to link with people in Belize that sell tours and the government give the money to BELTRAIDE. They won't contact us, we're not going to Taiwan, we're not going to states, we don't know who going and why they going and why the deserve it more than we, why we're not involved because we won't give them no kick back, because we think we deserve to be there, because we bleed our heart and soul in the tourism industry. We live this, according to our government, me and Mr. Rosado are hooligans, we don't have the right equipment, we this and we that and we downstream and only they can afford the bus and those kind of things. Read the reviews from the people that book our tours, we are superman, hero, knowledgeable, sometimes I go home and I tell my wife those things she get bex with me because those are the kind of things, the love we got for our country. We want to know who they are taking, how they are taking it, how many local people can get benefits from these kinds of grants and trickle down to us. If we are considered when you’re doing this kind of stuff. If the poor people will benefit from the Taiwan money."

And, Almendarez went on to generally lament the state of the cruise tourism industry where prices have been driven down by ruthless race - to- the- bottom competition:

David Almendarez
"Before CHUKKA come to Belize, 100 US dollars a tour guide get paid minimum a day. When they bring the Walmart effect and start cut this, cut that, meet this, meet that, meet this, it hurts our economy and it take the tour guide pay down to 30, 60, 65 dollars a day. The prices that we were collecting was a price that was long established by hard working tour guides that has made our destination one of the more sought of destinations in the world. We have a premier tourism product, we have a jewel. Here comes the outside powers that be and use our government to do some very serious tactics that has seriously affected tour operators. The number of existing tour operators that exist now, I would say is a quarter of what existed 8 years ago. Every year, it is a decrease and every year increasing numbers, increase in this and I challenge the hotel association because they have their numbers too and all the Airbnb and all those things them because they no know about not increase. Show me where the numbers are coming from."

Yohanny Rosado - FECTAB
"Beware of the big companies and the big names and BTB should be aware then they give awards every year because you giving awards to the monstrous tour operators but FECTAB is doing our job to cut it out but now we are going to be heated up with BTB, we know we're going to be heat up with the government. Gentlemen, somebody has to say something, all we have called a press conference is we need help because we're dying slowly and when people die, you tend to commit a crime and that's why our city is in a crime upgrading every time. All of the taxi and tour guides and operators I see when I leave the tourist village, the decent guys try to make decent money and if after a week they don't make decent money, they have to resort to illegal money."

But, in one bit of good news, the local tour operators re no longer being pushed to the Marion Jones sporting complex:

David Almendarez
"Thank god to the mayor, I want to give props to Mayor Bernard. We met and we had several meetings and I explained the real situation to him and he decided you know something, we're going with the local and poor people and we will not move them from terminal 1. Port at Marion Jones was a Carnival idea, BTB in bed with Carnival. When Carnival say boom, BTB jumps and they tell you if you don't do that, the ship they going. Well the ship could go because you what the happen, we're not eating neither. If we were eating we would be making no kind of noise."