On October 22, 2010, the Belize Tourism Board conducted a consultation in the village of Placencia to garner feedback from villagers and stakeholders on whether they would be receptive to the installation of a cruise ship port there, purportedly for the generation of more tourism activity.
The answer was an emphatic NO.
In keeping with their promise to adhere to the results of an assessment, the BTB announced that there would be no cruise tourism port in Placencia. The consultation was conducted by the principal and founder of Seatone Consultants, Rich Wilson.
Present at the “Southern Cruise Viability Report” press briefing on Monday, March 21, 2011, was the Director of BTB, Seleni Matus, Chief Executive Officer Lindsay Garbutt and consultant Rich Wilson.
Garbutt explained the position of BTB with regards to the results: “I think this government is known for accepting rational recommendations; the results of these recommendations have been shared and I think he [Prime Minister Dean Barrow] has said that he is going to respect the results of this recommendation as far as the development of a cruise ship port in Placencia is concerned.
“…the Ministry of Tourism and the BTB went into this consultation with an open mind. We said from the beginning that it was not a done deal, and that we would carefully, based on a known and respected consultant, go through a careful process and that we would respect whatever the result of that consultation is, so in saying that the consultation is not recommending any cruise ship development in Placencia Peninsula, we are prepared to respect that.”
According to Wilson, eighty to ninety percent of the consulted persons were Belizeans. Under the “Key findings of the situation assessment” section of the report, it is stated, “In October and November, 2010, Seatone Consultants conducted confidential situation assessment interviews with a balanced set of 28 stakeholders in Southern Belize.”
The report states that participants included hoteliers, restaurateurs, tour operators, village council chairmen and representatives, industry association presidents, tour guide association presidents and guides, protected area managers, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of indigenous culture, among others.
A total of three public consultation meetings on cruise tourism were conducted subsequent to the situation assessment, and, according to the consultants, these meetings yielded results that “confirmed key findings of the situation assessment and revealed significant concerns on a host of issues related to the potential introduction of cruise tourism in the south.” The report then went on to summarize that, “In Placencia – the center of the proposed development scheme — the meeting dynamic was dominated by negative perceptions of the cruise industry and mistrust of government actions leading up to the public consultation.”
The report also indicated that “meetings in Punta Gorda and Dangriga realized similar sentiments about the cruise industry,” but that there were also “more in-depth discussion between the public, government officials and private developers that focused on the need to promote economic growth that ensures direct benefits for local Belizeans. Of note, many individuals and groups throughout the region demonstrated outright opposition to cruise ships in the south, and articulated numerous reasons to support their skepticism and resistance.”
With the results dictating the BTB’s halt in the initiative for a southern port, the assessment portion of the report also sketched outlines of “limits of acceptable changes.” Matus explained what that was about:
“What that is,” Matus explained, “is that rather than come up with a carrying capacity, [it is recommended that we] sit with stakeholders that use this area or areas and determine what are those conditions that they feel can change over time gradually.
“So what that’s looking to do is to establish thresholds for change, acceptable change that the users of that area determine collectively. I think it is important to note that the National Sustainable Tourism Master Plan is the document the CEO mentioned [that] will definitely outline what the specific areas for development should be at a national level, so that plan is coming with very specific recommendations on what those areas are on a national level, that Government and private sector should focus its attention, in terms of development.”
The trio also repeated their presentation of the results in the southern town of Punta Gorda and Dangriga.