Barrow in the Line of Fire from angry Placencia residents

Isabel Vasquez
Once again, residents of the Placencia Peninsula are up in arms against the government – and this time, their anger is being vented directly towards PM Dean Barrow following an interview aired on Love FM revealing that international cruise ships will soon be docking in Placencia village.
PM Barrow revealed ground-shattering plans that Placencia’s dock will receive hordes of cruise ship passengers in a bid to put the Peninsula on the map with international cruise lines. And yet, at a consultation with the Inter-American Development Bank to discuss proposals for the dock, residents of Placencia spoke with one voice against catering to cruise liners. The people specifically sought a dock “to enhance Placencia as an overnight tourist destination”, enabling local tour operators and fishermen to offer improved services to visitors; day trippers from cruise ships in no way fulfil this criteria.
Cruise ship passengers will literally “hop on” to the peninsula, have a quick browse around, and “hop back off”. Studies throughout the world show that cruise ship passengers do not greatly enhance a local tourist industry because costs involved with hosting the visitors greatly outweigh monies spent by them, with most of their spending going directly to the multi-national cruise line and – if lucky – a handful of locals who might secure a contract with the company.
Residents have raised concerns about waste disposal, water supplies, and infrastructural burdens, to mention but a few. Furthermore, according to Mary Toy, spokesperson for the Placencia Citizens for Sustainable Development, the introduction of cruise ships to Placencia will “hurt overnight visitor business to the point of extinction”. Returning tourists who choose Placencia for the tranquillity and isolation will have their holiday dreams shattered by the inundation by cruise ship passengers to the peninsula. Top-end sports fishermen, who provide the area with excellent rates of pay for fishing tours, plus are considered ‘good spenders’ within the community as a whole, have already allegedly threatened to pull out of the area if cruise ships are allowed to dock in Placencia, because the inherent value of Placencia as a fishing destination will be irreversibly destroyed.
Numerous emails have already been sent to the Prime Minister seeking that he revoke his decision because, despite his misleading reassurances, the people of the Peninsula were in no way consulted on this matter. In fact, when the IDB conducted a survey in the area, they concluded that people of the village wanted a dock, but had specified that they did not want any provision for cruise ship passengers as they were not deemed to offer any advantages to the Peninsula’s tourist industry.
The Prime Minister is in the line of fire from literally hundreds of angry residents who are voicing their anger as loudly as possible. Quotes from various letters to the PM include:
• “WE WANT A PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS THIS BEFORE A DEAL IS SIGNED, NOT AFTER, AS USUALLY SEEMS TO BE THE CASE! WE CONFIDENTLY VOTED FOR THIS PARTY BASED ON THEIR RHETORIC THAT THEY WERE “FOR BELIZEANS”….HOW MANY OF THESE CRUISE SHIPS ARE BELIZEAN OWNED?”
• “PLACENCIA TOURISM WAS ORIGINALLY BASED ON THE IDEA OF GIVING A TRULY BELIZEAN EXPERIENCE TO THOSE WHO CAME SEEKING JUST THAT…LET US NOT DESTROY IT AND THE EFFORTS OF SO MANY”
• “OUR FISH WERE LITERALLY GIVEN TO THE JAMAICANS RECENTLY, DON’T TAKE OUR DOCK”
• “IF I WERE YOU, I’D KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON VILLAGE COUNCIL ELECTIONS THIS YEAR. THEY MAY VERY WELL BE A PREDICTOR OF THINGS TO COME”
The people of the Placencia Peninsula have once again spoken – as they do regularly on matters of environmental concern. This time, however, the hundreds of local residents are united with one voice: a voice against the Prime Minister’s decision to allow Royal Caribbean cruises to come here. And with rumours that the PM has already definitely agreed to this contract, it seems the future looks a bit turbulent for our troubled leader right now.

| | | | | |