There’s always trouble somewhere, isn’t there? There’s no escaping it. Egypt. Tunisia. Yemen. Afghanistan. There’s even trouble in the cruise industry.
In Mexico, cruise lines are bailing out of ports. The latest one is Mazatlan, now being bypassed regularly, because of an increase in crime. Holland America, Disney and Princess have all taken Mazatlan off their lists of ports, at least for the time being.
In Belize, there are tendering issues that have moved cruise ships to change ports. Several Carnival ships have changed itineraries and gone to Costa Maya or Grand Cayman instead.
The Mexico issue is pretty cut and dried. Tourists have been mugged, and the threat of that turns them off taking cruises making stops in Mazatlan. For the Mexican people who count on cruise tourism, it’s just one more blow.
The Belize issue is more complicated. Depending on whom you believe, one or some of the following is true: (1) the tendering company raised prices from $5 a head to $7 a head and Carnival said no; (2) local tender boats are considered to be unsafe for transporting cruise-ship passengers; (3) a tendering operator from Hawaii brought large boats in to either undercut the locals or to solve the problem; (4) the movement to limit the number of cruise ships dropping anchor off Belize is sabotaging the process.
At any rate, this week an estimated 10,000 passengers expected in Belize City went somewhere else. If Royal Caribbean and Norwegian take Carnival’s lead, it will be worse.
Who suffers?
Rose, a happy woman (left) we met a year and a half ago in Belize City, is a street vendor. She was kind, with a smile as wide as a freeway, and she put no pressure on customers to buy. She depends on tourism.
Mark is a tour guide. He told a Belize television station he had no customers — zero — this week and that the income with which he supports his family is dependent on people buying local tours if they don’t have shore excursions.
Roy, a taxi operator, told another TV station that the desperation is leading to in-fighting among the drivers because there are so many of them and so few customers, and he blames the government.
The storyline in Mexico will be similar, the ways things are going. The poor will become poorer.
And that’s the saddest thing of all.