That advisory from the CDC was issued today after six ships docked in
Belize. Four of them came to Belize City while two stopped in Harvest
Caye. And the Fort Street Tourism Village was the busiest it's been
since the start of the pandemic with throngs of tourists going on
tours and a few doing the city walkabout, buying from vendors and
getting their hair braided.
And today we stopped by the Fort George Tourism Zone to get a feel for
what it was like for the tour guides and operators, and to ask the
tourists, why travel in a pandemic? Courtney Menzies has that story:
Six cruise ships set sail for Belize this morning making today the
largest cruise day we've had since the start of the pandemic. Four of them
- Celebrity Apex, Carnival Pride, Carnival Dream, and Carnival Breeze
docked near Belize City and the other two - Norwegian Dawn and Norwegian
Breakaway went to Harvest Caye in the south. And when those cruise cakes
were cut, everyone got a slice.
Jimmy Robinson - President, Belize City Tour Operators And Workers
Association
"It's like Christmas really, we haven't seen a day like this in a long
time so I think everybody is going home today with some money to
celebrate the New Year and make the family be happy. Of course we have
a little odds and ends but once we are making money everybody is happy
so happy it's smiles, smiles, and a lot of smiles."
Courtney Menzies
"Does this give you hope for the next cruise tourism season next year?"
Jimmy Robinson
"Definitely it gives us a lot of hope, finances is coming into the
country, we're internationalizing Belize more on the world marketing
but at the same time we're not dropping our guard especially with the
new variant of the COVID virus so we're remaining focus, sanitizing,
the distancing and so forth, therefore, doing such both us and our
guests are safe."
Wayne Humesm - Tour Guide
"Today since the cruise tourism started to come back to Belize, today
is like what you call the largest visitation of ships into our ports."
Courtney Menzies
"And when you talk to your other fellow tour guides and operators,
what's the sentiment, because I know you guys were really struggling at
the start of the pandemic so what's the sentiment now?"
Wayne Humesm
"Some of us are still struggling because COVID actually did a lot on
the world including the country of Belize including tour guide,
operators, and other small vendors, hair braiders, and many other
people in the tourism sector. So we are still struggling, we still like
you said, we still stretching our hands out to try and get that help
that we need to actually fix ourselves that we may...take our feet off
the ground, we need that start, that push."
And tourists are happy to give that push despite the looming threat of
the Omicron variant. A few of them told us today why they chose one of the
riskiest forms of tourism.
Michelle - Cruise Tourist
"We really miss traveling and we came on a cruise ship to see the
lovely island of Belize and to meet the beautiful people so we walked
around your fabulous city and now we're just enjoying getting a massage
and getting our hair done and so we appreciate just being here and
having the country open to us. I think everybody knows if they've taken
the proper precautions and you just have to know that personally I'm
vaccinated and I wear my masks so that we do the right things when
we're being respectful of you the locals and any other people in places
that we visit."
Courtney Menzies
"How many times have you been here?"
Debbie & Kenny Fitzgerald - Cruise Tourists "Probably like 8. We like Belize."
Courtney Menzies
"What's your favorite thing about it?"
Debbie & Kenny Fitzgerald
"The Casinos. We have some favorite eating places just down here, we
always eat here when we come, it's good food. We've had all our shots
and everything and we haven't had any trouble with COVID, we just love
traveling, we've been on like fifty cruises and so when they opened the
cruises up we decided to come and scheduled this one in Belize."
Maya Perez - Cruise Tourist
"I love learning about new cultures and having new experiences and
that's the reason we took the train because we thought we were gonna
see more, learn more about the history and culture and we did so I
thought it was a really awesome tour."
Courtney Menzies
"Is this your first time here?"
Maya Perez
"It is my second time here. The first time I came we went to zip line
and a cave tour."
Courtney Menzies
"So what's your favorite thing about Belize?"
Maya Perez
"Beautiful, it's a beautiful country and I just feel like I'm at home.
I am a school teacher, and I work every single day and life is very
short, I feel as though as long as we are safe we should take the
opportunity to live our lives and also to benefit the other countries
because they said that tourism is important for the economy."
Herman & Nobie Scott - Cruise Tourists
"We enjoyed ourselves it's the first time we've been here, it's our
third cruise but the first time coming here."
Courtney Menzies "So what did you like about it?"
Herman & Nobie Scott
"I like the culture, I like the people, we like some of the food and it
was wonderful."
Courtney Menzies "Why did you decide to go on a cruise ship during the pandemic?"
Herman & Nobie Scott
"My wife, she came up with the cruise thing. (laughs). She said the
cruise, I gotta go."
Courtney Menzies
"But you guys are obviously being safe and whatnot."
Herman & Nobie Scott
"Yes, we've done our COVID testing, we've had our shots, so I felt
confident and faithful that God will protect us and I'm a nurse so."
According to the Belize Tourism Board, over 14,000 passengers came to our
shores from these ships.