Elbert-you do not run your own boats,own your own dive shop etc.(ie you can pack up and leave at a moments notice)-you run a successful business by advertising,using other peoples machinery and property-therfore to you it does not matter if gas or anything else goes up as you will just continually add your % on and therefore your profit will remain the same-however the people who have put their money into capital investment will at some stage have to put their prices up which will determine where people go on vacation-you might have missed the news that the US and europe(the majority of our tourists come from these countries) are in a pretty deep recession and saving money or even not having a vacation comes into play for most middle class families and couples-you are not giving opinions on diving but on economics which you are patently not qualified.

The undercard for WWF in San Pedro; Pedro1 vs Elbert.

This is confusing , I thought you knew me, Hi I'm Elbert I'm an American born Belizean citizen and own my own home and dive shop on Ambergris Caye.My life and lively hood is extremely dependent on Tourism in Belize.
I'm not going anywhere but in the San Pedro Graveyard from here.
Gloom and Doom hysteria is what I object to on this thread.
Have some faith the gas prices always go up , sometimes big jumps and nothing really changes ,does it?
All I see in the Belize Tourism market is growth and development providing wealth and success for those involved.
Those that don't succeed whine and blame something other than themselves like The price of oil.

Elbert you do not own the shop you rent it(owning the shop would be called capital investment)-this is not doom and gloom -we should as a country worry about our no. 1 industry which is tourism and that is governed by how much money people have to spend and where they get the best bang for their buck,and we should work out ways to make sure that we give them this.
Look at all the trips you sell which will go up-ypou make a minimum of 20% by making a telephone call.
If you did not have hotels ie people who invest you would not have a business -now there is not one hotel on this island that is not worried about the recession,prices of flight tickets (800usd r/t to Houston),food prices etc.-you just need to look at the message board at people coming down via Cancun-you really have to want to come here to go this route-it is a bloody miserable trip and it takes two days from the US to AC-therefore 4 days travelling to come here and return- not a great advert.
You run a dive business with no boats-that is fairly unusual and you are totally dependant on others for your business to flourish.

Elbert - you're incredibly naive to think that you will not be affected in this economic struggle that this world faces due to rising energy prices. If you've found the golden ticket to a well-insulated business than I suggest you write a book and run for president/prime minister. Good luck to you sir.

This business of mine seems to disturb you for some reason.
I look at it as a great idea thats working well. Making everyone involved happy and successful. my logic of having the operators own their own boats is incentive to the operators. When he is owner of the boat and has an investment to watch out for, his judgment is different and I feel safer with my butt being on his boat.
but thats not the topic is it.
What do you propose we do about the oil prices going up and don't you think they went up in Mexico as well?

Elbert it is not your business that disturbs me but your posts which state that you really have no idea what is going on in the world.
In answer to your question gas is cheaper in Mexico than in the free zone -Mexico subsidise oil but you surely knew that as we live next door.The reason they do this is to protect amongst other industries their tourism.

Whats the solution? You stated in you original post 'if we don't watch out ' what are we watching for?

Your saying Belize should help with the jet fuel prices to get people here?

Elbert you are showing very little intelligence here-
1. Perhaps we should not charge landing fees
2. perhaps we should not tax jet fuel
3. perhaps we should look at the BTB on how they use their tax money.
4. perhaps we should teach tourism up to degree standard at schools
5. Work out better deals with the airlines to bring people here
6. there are hundreds of things we can do.