It's one of the most popular emerging cruise destinations in the Caribbean, but, the tourist product called Belize, has a bulging Black eye tonight because this morning, visitors had to be turned away.
Beli-Tur, the tour company run by the Novelo's brothers that is responsible for moving thousands of cruise visitors to various destinations throughout Belize today suffered what managers are saying are losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars when a cruise ship simply turned around and left Belizean waters without even stopping. And that happened because Beli-Tur simply had no buses to work with. The company that was supposed to provide the buses is Novelo's Bus Line. But managers there say it all fell apart when Beli-Tur imposed impossible demands at the 11th hour. While the tourists were scratching their heads on the cruise ship wondering: "What's up with Belize?" we were looking for answers and what we got was a heated back and forth.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
It ended like this: 32 buses sent out by Novelo's Bus Line this morning to services the cruise ships that docked at the Belize City harbor were simply not used. But while that's the end result it all started yesterday afternoon when Novelo's Bus Company received a notice from the tour operator Beli-Tur asking that the tour buses be equipped with fire extinguishers and first aid kits.
Bob Garcia,
"We did the usual request format from Beli-Tur. Before we could respond to the first request that came in for 50 buses that came in early in the morning we got a subsequent or an updated request for 60 buses. Around four o'clock yesterday evening we were informed by way of letter from Beli-Tur that each bus must be equipped with a fire extinguisher and first aid kit. We subsequently wrote back to Beli-Tur saying that with the condition that the buses must have fire extinguishers and first aid kits onboard then there are Zero buses available."
Ismael Garcia,
"Mr. Novelo became aware of that letter this morning and at that time the eleventh hour the cruise boat is already in the dock and at that time you are not really looking to write a letter; you want immediate action at that time. You have the tourists already there waiting and you want to be prepared to go."
That set off a string of events that led to Novelo's Bus Line holding out on the buses until they got confirmation that Beli-Tur would use them without fire extinguishers and first aid kits. But the reply never came. Even so Robert Garcia the general manager of Novelo's Bus says that had the request come earlier it could have been met.
Bob Garcia,
"At four o'clock in the evening it was near impossible to provide or to meet those conditions. There is no way we could have found all those fire extinguishers and first aid kits and indeed the timing was as bad as one could get."
But while it was bad timing, Beli-Tur's Garcia says that the request is not a new one. He adds that this is a standing request that Beli-Tur has made of Novelo's Bus Line, and yesterday it was no different.
Ismael Garcia,
"We sent to them a note with a request, which is not a new request, that the buses have a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit. This is part of the contractual agreement between Novelo's Bus Line and Beli-Tur and it was one of the basic requirements of traffic safety here in Belize."
But according to Novelo’s that contract simply does not exist. In fact it was broken, because Beli-Tur has not been paying its bills.
Kevin Castillo,
"There was a contract between Novelo's Bus Line and Beli-Tur. That contract has been terminated by us. It has been terminated the ninth of June because of non-payment of our invoices."
Bob Garcia,
"So indeed they said you are to have this but my response was...you pay the bill. If you pay for the service then I can buy a better tire, I can buy a fire extinguisher but if you don't pay what we expect we will not cross-subsidize your interest which is the cruise part where they have the larger public. Its not like we make that amount of money that we can overhaul and put everything right."
And Garcia says Novelo's will address the problem but in a holistic manner; that is, the entire Novelo's bus line fleet will be equipped with the safety equipment and priority will be given on the buses used on commuter runs.
Bob Garcia,
"I have indeed put priority on the Blue Bird because those buses serve the local need but they also move far more passengers on a daily basis and so from a point of view of safety for all the passengers and putting the equipment where we can use them or are better able to use them then the priority will be given to Blue Birds."
That said Garcia and Castillo claim that the entire fiasco this morning was as a result of mischief and bad mouthing for new players in the tourist transportation to be set into play.
Bob Garcia
"I have suspected that there is indeed some mischief afoot and I had expected for this to become a media event."
Kevin Castillo,
"I am claiming mischief particularly because I got word from Marco Polo of Brazil in relation to someone inquiring about 50 new buses to come into Belize. And I am saying that the people who I heard made the request or the inquiry for the 50 buses are people I think who are in someway involved in the tourist industry. I am not going to call any names but at the end of the day you make your own conclusions. And at the end of the day it is simply somebody's agenda to try to make their situation a little bit better so at the end of the day we are left with a bunch of buses that are parked here in our lot not making any money for this company."
Ismael Garcia,
"If it wasn't such serious business I would say I find the statement amusing. Cruise tourism is a big thing, I think it is impacting on the lives of so many Belizeans and it is business for Beli-Tur so we cannot afford to be playing games with business. To me if it was mischief we would have tried to do something on another day when we didn't have people actually involved and people coming on the land already. Why would we want to create mischief on a day like this when we have lost business as a result of this situation that developed."
That could not be said today because at the end of it, the buses were simply not used and a cruise ship left Belizean waters with passengers not disembarking - which amounts to a loss for everyone.
Beli-Tur says it is willing to continue to work with Novelo's Bus Line while Novelo's managers say that they will be meeting the fire extinguisher and first aid kit demands by Tuesday of next week. As a side bar Beli-Tur is owned by the Novelo's brothers, the owners of Novelo's Bus Company before creditors took it over in March of this year.