Tonight, the picture in the cruise ship industry is that much clearer - after Waterloo has been taken out of the picture by agreement.
But, it's still not clear where the Belize District will get a berthing facility.
Today, before a full house at the Radisson the BTB launched its Cruise Tourism Policy.
It is the product of two years of consultations and we spoke with one of the main forces behind it:
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"People who are on the ground who know how this thing works and I've been here for 20 years, have really been the authors of this policy. I need to make the point that this is this is not a top down document. This is a bottom up document. So there, it started off by looking out the gaps. What are the gaps that we have?"
"Why are we not getting this right? And how can we fill those gaps? So this is a ten year road map that would see us build cruise tourism sustainably over the next ten years. Hopefully, that we can achieve 3.5 million passengers per annum."
Jules Vasquez:
"Where are the roads that are going to move these people? Where are the busses? How can the sites maintain that volume of throughput? What is the time frame and what is the scaling that you all would hope to achieve?"
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"So it's a ten year road map. Right. So how can we get from where we are now to where we need to be to accommodate 2.5 million passengers calling on Belize in a year? We're not talking about a month. We're talking about per annum. Right now, we're at about 850,000 to 900,000 visitors, cruise visitors per year. So how do we amp that up to 2.5 million?"
"Your right. We need more sites. We need more busses. We need more human resource capacity training. All of those things need to come together for us to reach that 2.5 million. It will have to be a public-private sector partnership."
Jules Vasquez:
"Does this plan envisage this 2.5 million? Does that envisage a berthing facility and where is that berthing facility?"
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"I can't speak to the point that Belize is part of a Western Caribbean itinerary. So we are strategically located, we are right in the middle. So if we're looking at a five or seven day cruise, Belize is in the very center of that. The Western Caribbean itinerary really doesn't work without Belize. That's one point. The second point is we need a berthing facility."
"So those sports that are before us and after us have berthing facilities. Belize needs one. I can't speak to which facility. I do know that we do need one or two more."
Jules Vasquez:
"In the Belize district?"
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"It doesn't necessarily have to be the Belize district that we need at least two more or one that has four berthing spots."
"Berthing, Piers. Right. That can accommodate for ships at any given time. That is what we really need."
Jules Vasquez:
"So that 2.5 million is only realized if we have a berthing facility."
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"Precisely."
Jules Vasquez:
"When you when you achieve this 2.5 million, will there still be space for the small operators, for the Yhonys, the Toms, the Big johns, all the guys who operate outside the village?"
Lloyd Enriquez, Director of Cruise BTB
"There will always be space. 2.5 million is a lot of passengers, right? No. There is space for all tiers of operators."
All the major industry stakeholders - including tour guides and companies large and small were at today's event.
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