And while the quality of the fish sold in an unsanitary location is questionable, the coalition of environmental NGO's is worried about the marine life that will be impacted by the proposed causeway for Stake Bank's cruise port.
Not to mention, the concerns about the other two proposed ports, all along the coast of the Belize District.
And while these projects may bring more tourism earnings, the environmental costs may outweigh any monetary benefits.
That's why the president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association says he's opposed to having three ports for Belize. And while he favors Port Coral, he doesn't think the causeway is a necessity. He explained his views to us today.
Stewart Krohn, President, BTIA
"BTIA does not have an official position on this cruise port issue. From a personal point of view and from the business person's point of view, it cannot make sense to have three major cruise ports in one relatively small destination. That is clear. If you had that, it's going to be a race to the bottom and you're going to have a total distortion in the tourism industry. It would seem logically that since Stake Bank has such head start than anyone else and it seems like a pretty viable project, I'm not talking about the causeway, that's another story, but as a cruise port I think it looks good, I think it's the right size for the country, it would kind of make sense that really that's all we need right now. This is not to say that the other proposals are not viable in the absence of a large number of competing ports but I think the realities are that Stake Bank is gonna satisfy the needs of the industry very well."
"I don't see the need to have a causeway to Belize city, it's just not making sense to me, the thing about Stake Bank is the problem that the cruise industry have, or that the cruise lines have with a tendering situation, the main problem is that in any kind of bad-ish weather, it's very difficult for people, particularly elderly people to go from a cruise ship that's bobbing up and down onto a cruise tender that's also bobbing up and down and not necessarily in sync. It's a cumbersome process, it's a dangerous process, what Stake Bank offers without a causeway is that the boats will be berthed at Stake Bank so that danger and that time consumption of going from one bobbing ship to another bobbing ship, Stake Bank eliminates that negative aspect so if the tourists are going inland from Stake Bank, they get on a tender in safety and they arrive at For Street in safety so the worse part of tendering is eliminated plus the advantage of being at Stake Bank is if it is marine tourism they're going to do, well then they're already out at an island very close to where snorkeling, diving, being on a beach is going to be."
