March 13th, 2020 - that's when the last cruise ship made a port call in Belize, just before the emerging COVID-19 pandemic caused a total shutdown of all international travel.
For those who make their living in this industry, the ensuing 17 months have been an economic famine - thousands lost their income, and many had to sell their tour buses and water ferries just to keep food on the table.
This morning, they all breathed a sigh of relief when the Carnival Vista became the first ship to bring cruise tourists to Belizean shores. It's an important step for a slow return to normalcy in the industry, and 7News was at the Fort Street Tourism Village when those guests disembarked. Daniel Ortiz reports:
This morning, for the first time in well over a year, Belize City's coastline was bustling cruise tourism commerce. Carnival Cruise Line arrived today with a little over 2,800 guests who wanted to explore Belize's tourism product.
And of course, stakeholders in the industry were eager to provide the best possible experience, even in these pandemic times.
Noriko Gamero - Director, Cruise & Destination Planning, BTB
"We're super excited today to receive the Carnival Vista. It's been 15 long months, where everybody has anticipated this day."
John Pollard - Owner, Big John Tours & Taxi Transfers
"We have been off for the past 16 months thereabouts. We're back today to see exactly what is going to happen, and what will happen."
William "New York" Bradley - Artisan/Vendor
"Today has been a blessed day for me because it's almost 2 years that we haven't worked. We haven't done anything in tourism. This is a passion for me. I love tourism so much because I can express myself, share the quality of my country, and at the same time, get paid."
Noriko Gamero
"We have 2,810 total passengers on the Carnal Vista, so you know that's not a hundred percent capacity. And over 97% of them are vaccinated. So, the remainders are the children or people of religious beliefs. So, those people were put into what we call a bubble tour, and then they were taken on tours with additional, enhanced safety measures. All the vaccinated people, are here to enjoy Belize. Vendors and restaurants are opened to receive them. We have tours going to Altun Ha, Xunantunich, Lamanai, Hol Chan."
According to the tourism officials, all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the return to tourism in Belize is as safe as possible.
Noriko Gamero
"The cruise lines have had to retrofit their entire ship meeting the same gold standards that we have demanded of our tour operators and all our local stakeholders. And then, just to get them here, they've been vaccinated. They've been tested, PCR, rapid test, you name it. These guys have gone above and beyond the protocols necessary."
"I want to emphasize that every individual and employee who is working here today have had at least their first vaccination, and on Monday, we did a swabbing of a hundred percent of every tour operator, tour guide, Tennant. Everybody was swabbed, and I am happy to report that we have a hundred percent negative."
While these frontline tourism stakeholders were COVID free as of Monday, how do they remain that way? To ensure that the influx of persons visiting Belize doesn't become the source of a super spread perhaps of a new strain, there are strict attempts to manage crowds, and create social distance:
Noriko Gamero
"Once they arrive here, as you can see behind me, they're offloading. We're doing them in smaller groups. They're coming off in a controlled amount so that we don't have overcrowding on the port."
As for the facility itself, the management of the Fort Street Tourism Village has retrofitted it to manage the common risks associated with large volumes of passengers expected to pass through the cruise port.
Just to get past the security area, there's an automated temperature-measuring device that detects if face masks aren't being worn.
Noriko Gamero
"The port itself has done a phenomenal job, just to make sure that they've met all the gold standards."
You guys experience the technology which has been put in place that checks your temperature. The sanitizing stations. Even on the outside of the compound of the Fort Street Tourism Village, where there used to be jostling here and there, the independent tour operators were conducting business in an orderly fashion.
John Pollard
"You came here, and you saw me and the sergeant engaging in a little conversation. These lines are placed here for a purpose. This yellow line, here, only personnel at the front will remain at those social distance lines, which is 4 or 5 operators up at a time. 2 personnel are allowed because only 6 of us, for now, has the Gold Standard [certification] out here at this present moment. So, we're doing 2, 2, and 2 in rotation."
And in the event that a guest coming off the ship suddenly starts to show signs of the COVID virus, strict protocols will be triggered.
Noriko Gamero
"The importance of the Gold Standard was so everybody knows how to deal with the response plan. So, the response plan is one of the 9-point checklists, and it ensures that everybody, whether you're a vendor, a hair braider, a tenant, a tour operator, [or] tender operator. Everybody should know, and they've been trained on what the protocol is. And the protocol is any symptomatic passenger is isolated, and then, they'll return to ship for testing. They basically would go on a separate tender. They go back onboard. There are medical facilities. They become tested, and then should anybody test positive, then that's where the importance, again, the Gold Standard for contact tracing."
But, for everyone who depends on cruise tourism, today's reopening is its own major success.
Noriko Gamero
"Just the fact that the ship is here, that first person who came off that ship was a success."
John Pollard
"I would like that everyone who is here today takes home something to their families. That's what I would like to happen today. Some people might call it crumb-snatching, but most people, if not everyone out here, have a family that he or she needs to feed."
William "New York" Bradley
"We are hoping that we can see other days like this because the pandemic has destroyed us, mein."
