Tom Greenwood Wrote Well, here goes the document on THE CASE AGAINST MASS CRUISE TOURISM IN SOUTHERN BELIZE : THE CASE AGAINST MASS CRUISE TOURISM IN SOUTHERN BELIZE The campaign by private interests closely tied to the government of Belize to introduce cruise ships to southern Belize dates back to 2010. At that time a proposal by investors tied to Royal Caribbean Cruise Line to establish Placencia as port of call was successfully rebuffed by area residents. Two years later a new version of the same proposal, this time allegedly more “Placencia friendly” was floated to a group of tour guides but was never introduced or debated publicly. In early 2013 a much larger proposal was made to the government by Norwegian Cruise Line. This project, backed by the same official who pushed the first two, called for NCL to purchase Crawl Caye, an island off the Belize coast where its largest ships could dock and passengers frolic on the beach as well as embark for tours on land and sea. NCL’s total investment was said to be in the range of US$50 million and the cruise line heralded the investment on one that would bring jobs and prosperity to an economically depressed area of the country and significant revenues to a cash strapped government. While cabinet, under pressure from environmentalists, turned down the proposal for Crawl Caye on the grounds that it was in a marine reserve that formed part of a World Heritage Site, it endorsed the project if a more suitable location could be found. Immediately NCL announced plans to purchase Harvest Caye, a 70 acre island less than 3 miles south of Placencia Village just off the mainland. Following cursory study by a cabinet subcommittee (half of whose ministerial members never showed up for meetings) cabinet agreed to a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with NCL that granted the company unprecedented fiscal incentives and tax breaks. Details of a formal agreement are being drafted while NCL refines plans for its purchase of the island, its dredging and filling as well as construction of its berthing and recreational facilities. It plans to have Harvest Caye ready for action by the 2015/2016 cruise season. The authors of this document, a broad coalition of tourism and environmental groups from around the country, believe that the introduction of mass cruise tourism—or any type of mass tourism—to southern Belize represents nothing less than an invitation to disaster. The pressure on the environment caused by ships, boats and hundreds of thousands of visitors will irreparably harm the pristine coral reefs, grass beds and marine life of southern Belize. At present southern Belize attracts around 35,000 overnight foreign visitors per year, the majority of whom spend part of their stay enjoying the area’s world class SCUBA diving, snorkeling and fishing. Even at this relatively low density, some areas are showing signs of overcrowding and resource degradation. The addition of 500,000 to 1,000,000 additional cruise tourists each year cannot help but rapidly destroy some of the planet’s most valuable marine ecosystems. While NCL has claimed that its passengers will be fully instructed in reef friendly behavior, experience has shown that cruise tourists –most of whom are novice divers and snorkelers—cannot help but touch, kick and stand on once pristine coral gardens. In short, the environment off the coast simply cannot stand up to this kind of mass human intrusion. With increasing numbers of mega cruise ships plying the relatively shallow and coral rich waters of southern Belize the possibility of a ship grounding or serious polluting incident is well within the realm of possibility. When these increasingly common incidents occur, who will pay for the damages to the world’s second longest barrier reef? Who will monitor and clean up the pollution from oil, bilge and sewage leaks? Just to leeward of the Harvest Caye ship berths are some of Belize’s most productive shrimp farms. Those farms rely on the sea for clean salt water intake for their growing operations and face stringent certification requirements to export their environmentally friendly products to Europe. They employ hundreds of Belizeans. Can the shrimp farms remain viable if their source of sea water is contaminated? The waters around Harvest Caye are home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of West Indian Manatees. The presence of thousands of visitors per day in the water and on boats runs the risk of killing large numbers of these creatures in collisions as well as scaring them off to other locations. The area is presently used by local guides offering manatee-sighting tours to overnight tourists. When the manatees leave for—literally—greener pastures, where will the guides—and their guests--go? The NCL project at Harvest Caye changes the character of Belize’s national tourism profile from beneficial low impact/high value eco-cultural tourism to unsustainable high impact/low value mass tourism. Belize actually originated the concept of ecotourism over a quarter century ago and the economy has benefitted immensely, to the point where tourism is the nation’s largest single industry. It is, according to Prime Minister Dean Barrow, “the engine that drives our economic train.” Over the last two decades the industry has shown average annual growth rates of over six percent. In 2012 that growth was close to ten percent and similar performance is expected in 2013. The cruise industry on the other hand, is erratic and gyrates between wild increases and precipitous plunges. It is fully controlled by the cruise lines which make scheduling decisions based on their needs, not ours. Overnight tourists spend between two and three times more per day than cruise tourists and overnight tourists purchase more toward local products than the imports (primarily watches and jewelry) favored by cruise ship passengers. When cruise passengers go on tours sold onboard, the cruise lines keep 50-60% of the price of the tour. When overnight tourists book tours with local tour operators, the tour operators keep all of the tourist dollar. Mass cruise tourism displaces overnight eco-tourism and reverses the trend toward more upscale visitors and their more attractive spending patterns. For example, an overnight eco-tourist who has spent US$2,500 on a four day visit to Belize, heads to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife sanctuary for a secluded hike to Tiger Fern Falls. He carries binoculars and has hired a top local birding guide. When he arrives he finds four big tour buses and a hundred other hikers on the narrow trail. They all paid $279 for a four day Western Caribbean cruise. Will our birdwatcher come back next year? Will his like -minded friends on Facebook? Not likely. Overnight tourism generates revenues for Government; mass cruise tourism generates kickbacks to the cruise lines. Hotels remit the 9% hotel tax to Government. Restaurants and other businesses remit 12.5% General Sales Tax to Government. Overnight tourists pay airport and PACT fees totaling US$39.25 per person. Overnight tourists also pay 12.5% GST to Government on almost all of their purchases. All local businesses pay Government a minimum of 1.75% of gross revenues in Business Tax. Cruise tourists will pay Government US$7.00 each to land at Harvest Caye --and then Government will give back $4.00 of that $7.00 to NCL to help NCL “recover” its investment. NCL will also receive duty exemption for all imported materials as well as “expedited” treatment from Government for work permits and all other Government services. Government and NCL say the project is all about jobs. In fact most of the jobs are seasonal, part time and low paying. If NCL has a ship in port 130 days a year that means part time employment. How do you build a nation on part time employment for bus drivers, tour guides, waiters, and other service personnel? Government says that a part time low wage job is better than nothing; we say that a growing overnight tourism industry has provided and will provide better paying full time jobs that build families, communities and the nation of Belize. Under the MOU, NCL will be allowed to employ foreigners as 25% of its workforce (no doubt the highest paying 25%). How does that help build a nation? Why would any sane country willingly give up control of its single largest industry to cruise lines that have consistently demonstrated their greed, rapaciousness and disregard for the environment on a global scale? Whether it’s a ship grounding in Italy, loss of power in the Gulf of Mexico or the discharge of pollution in Alaska, cruise operations all over the world leave a trail of destruction wherever they go. Can Belize really afford to risk that kind of damage in the most fragile and pristine part of the country? Even those Belizean service providers and companies that currently work for the cruise lines in Belize City will tell you privately (not publicly for fear of losing their jobs or contracts) that the cruise lines are the most exploitive entities they have ever encountered, demanding commissions of over 50% on tours, forcing one sided contracts and reducing local profit margins to the point where only large operations can survive and smaller operators are squeezed out. In the overnight tourism industry there are no dominant major players and independent operators can not only survive but flourish. The wealth is spread out and you don’t need to be “politically connected” to get a job. The authenticity of our tourism product is real and not contrived. Successful tourism is all about individual relationships and our frontline personnel have succeeded in making our industry the envy of destinations around the world. Call it “soul”, call it “heart”, call it “love”, call it whatever you want…but it’s an innate quality that NCL desperately craves and will never be able to manufacture. Why do we want to give away such a unique part of ourselves to a company that only wants to exploit it or its own selfish gain? Conclusion: Any deal with NCL is a bad deal. Say no to the sellout. Our natural attractions are world class. Nowhere on the planet is there such varied natural richness in one small place. Our people are friendly in a way that is genuine, maybe too genuine… and people like cruise line executives (and their paid local collaborators) mistake us for fools. The question for Belizeans is do we sellout ourselves and our country for a pittance or do we chart a course of our own choosing. Will our children and grandchildren thank us or curse us for the path we have chosen?
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 14:27:10 +0000
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