Whatever the rationale (increased profits for tourist village?), I do think it is wise these days to attempt to insulate the cruise ship passengers from the street vendors.

These guys and girls (hair braiders yelling and physically tugging my hair as I walked by on a recent trip to the Mirabs) seem to have become even more aggressive as of late. And let's face it - Unlike most of Belize - Belize City is not a safe city for anyone (let alone tourists!) to be roaming around chatting it up with locals.

This is dangerous thinking. Don't tell me, you're from the US?
It is this kind of class/cultural separation that leads to civil disobedience and ultimately terrorism.
Look at Israel. A nation of barbed-wire surrounded enclaves of haves and have-nots. Ugly high security bomb-proof corridors for merely getting in and out. Is that how you want to live? Walled in to your little San Pedro gated community with massive security and no freedom to walk the beach? Those people were born here, have to live and work here. It is an insult to every one of them to be excluded from any part of THEIR, NOT YOUR, country.

And let me guess.... you are an American/ Canadian / European / Belizean currently residing in Belize City? I don't suppose you have any security or take any precautions? Would you recommend the immediate area around tourist village as a tourist attraction to visiting family or friends?

There are unsafe areas in EVERY urban city in EVERY state in EVERY country. As much as I advocate supporting those in need trying to scrape out an honest living there, it is simply not prudent to dump unsuspecting tourists out into unfamiliar areas with this level of documented crime....

I don’t pretend to have the answer of how the area around the Tourism Zone should be handed but I’ll say this. Something has to change. In the last year on no less than 3 occasions (probably more) in talking to people who ask me what I was planning on my pending retirement, I answered Belize. The look on their face changed, they looked at me kind of funny and said you really like it there? One even said it was too scary for them.

Upon questioning, all of them had only been to Belize City on a cruise ship. All of them said they would never return. Now think of how many conversations they had with other people telling them of their negative impression of Belize, based on their Cruise Ship experience in Belize City.

Of course I informed them that Belize has a lot more to offer but I’ve remarked to my wife that Belize’s reputation has been hurt by Cruise ships arriving in Belize City. First impressions and all of that. Belize needs the dollars but something has to improve or over the long term it may be detrimental to Belize.

I follow the message board...Cruise Critic... The comments on that board echo what has been posted here.

I found Belize on a Cruise, but I took the taxi to Caye Caulker. Most tourists will not get of the ship, let alone leave the village.

Here is a recent post on Cruise Critic....

"Yesterday, 12:46 PM
MonkeyBiz
Cool Cruiser

Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: PA
Posts: 91

i was there on wednesday. i didnt leave the gated area. all sorts of unsavory looking characters reaching in through the bars saying "hey lady, wanna get a taxi and go somewhere" no thanks.

we booked a tour through eco tours and it was really nice. im glad we did cuz there is nothing to see in the port. it seemed like the canal street (area in nyc where you buy all the knock offs) of belize. just a bunch of counterfeit stuff and little junky souvenirs. it looked kinda scary outside the gate. there were security guards there but i wasnt confident in them keeping me safe if i left.

i loved my snorkeling trip there. it was amazing, but i wouldnt ever come back to that area to just hang out and wander"

Typical that your primary concern is with your own safety and that of "unsuspecting tourists". The issue in BELIZE should be the welfare of Belizeans. These people were making a living until recently disenfranchised by a foreign select group of capitalists. Sound familiar? Good old capitalist imperialism.
As for what I would recommend, a better solution focusing on the needs of the full time citizens, not the occasional tourist.
I am a US national, 5 year resident, longtime visitor to Belize. I am disgusted to see the corporate mentality that has ruined my country be exported to these "unsuspecting BELIZEANS".

"As for what I would recommend, a better solution focusing on the needs of the full time citizens, not the occasional tourist."

Like economic dependence on an industry other than tourism, perhaps? I agree - that would be preferable. Until that point, discouraging "occasional tourists" in your country is kinda like shooting those "full time residents" in the foot....

It would seem that the majority of the people in question have been already been effectively shot in the foot, locals and tourists alike. That gated mall/courtyard, designated now as the "tourist zone" was formerly open to all. It was the debarkation point to visit BZ City. The tourists, including cruise ship visitors. traditionally had the run of the entire downtown district. Most people have seen contrived flea market enclaves and want to see the real Belize culture.
Now a handful of corporate cruise industry outsiders and their locally bought despotic counterparts have effectively given birth to yet another Belize monopoly. They have corralled all the money elbow to elbow in a small compound, while the unrest and fear generated by the "iron curtain" street entrance works in their favor.
The people of Placencia are battling the same exact economic oppression.
The solution is not exclusion, but orderly freedom to enter and leave the compound, cruise about all of downtown BZ City, policed if need be, but not excluding anyone from anywhere, tourist or local.
Stop monopoly on tourist revenues by the obvious monopolistic oppressors. They have no right to restrict anyone's physical freedom or trade.

Tourism associations say new tourism zone is a “hostage” situation

The Fort George Tourism Zone, which was launched on Wednesday, December 8, with the objective of enhancing tourists’ experience in Belize as well as allowing for a more structured tourism market, has caused considerable dissatisfaction among some tourism association members.

In a press conference held on Friday, December 10, 2010, by those associations whose members are stationed outside of the Tourism Village, tourism workers lamented that the new mandatory protocols have almost completely wiped out their prospective earnings.

The general sentiments expressed by the unhappy attendees - the Hair Braiders Association, the Taxi Association, the Tour Guides Association, cruise tourism operators and other stakeholders - were that while they believe the new zoning plan is an excellent and welcomed initiative, it has not worked in their favor due to the ban on proactive interaction with the tourists, and further, due to what they say is a “hostage situation” with the tourists.

Yoni Rosado of Cavetubing.com stated at the press conference, “Outside, we have a taxi association, tour guides association, tour operators association, hair braiders association, vendors association, we have all these city people organized, ready to make a buck, but if the people [tourists] cannot get out, then how are we supposed to make some money?”

This was the last press conference being held to voice their concerns, said speakers at the conference, and then they will start to picket: “We are giving BTB [Belize Tourism Board], we are giving FSTV a chance. Listen we have a press conference, work with our program or face the consequences. We are being reasonable with them,” said Yoni Rosado, owner of Cavetubing.com.

The speakers spoke on what they say is an act of holding tourists hostage - due to the fact that the doors leading from inside the Tourism Village, which are guarded by armed police officers and are not marked as exit options, are closed, leaving tourists with no choice but to disregard the activities outside on Fort Street.

Rosado, who was the most vocal speaker during the press conference, stated that he along with the other tourism employees of the associations represented at the press conference - the Taxi Association, Tour Guides Associations, Hair Braiders’ Association, and the Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations (FECTAB) - has seen profits sink due to the lack of business.

“We don’t want to attack anyone directly, but our minds bug us to know that something is wrong. We are right next to the Tourism Village, we see the dollar signs flying around our face, but we can’t catch it Something is wrong. Believe me the door does not mark “Exit”, that is how critical it is, so my appeal is to the Government to check in on FSTV.

“We have been painted by BTB [the Belize Tourism Board], by FSTV, by the taxi association inside - we have all been painted as bad, aggressive people, oh we have no self-control,” said Rosado.

The Hair Braiders’ Association contends that assertive persuasion is critical to their ability to generate revenue, since the majority of their customers have to be convinced by them to purchase their services.

President of this association, Ruth Smith, stated, “Presently we are not making any money. The area that BTB located us is Mirab’s parking lot, Not even Mirab’s customers were using this parking lot. They always want to put the hair braiders to the back like we are not being recognized and we will not stand for that. That is why I am here today. We will not stand for that. We will not fight them physically, but at the end of the day, people have the power.

“I have a situation. It was Wednesday, four ships, one of my co-workers made twenty-six Belize dollars, the sixty-two played the same night. We need to be on the spot; we can’t be all half-mile away from where all the action and all the money-spending is and expect to make money.

“You know I came to an agreement with them that as long as they take on these ladies’ responsibilities for their house, their kids, I have no problem but apart from that leave us so that we can make our honest money.”

Shakira Petillo, a hair braider, stated that last week she suffered an almost complete wipeout of her regular earnings, as she made only twenty-something Belize dollars as opposed to typical profits of one hundred and fifty US dollars.

President of FECTAB, Tom Greenwood, explained, “FSTV is a port [of entry]; the judgment of the Supreme Court was that they had to have a fence; if you have legitimate reasons for being in there, i.e., proof that you’re meeting somebody, they should open the gates both ways, so our fight is now against FSTV: open those gates, let people go, stop holding people hostage, stop shuffling people up and down for whoever likes it.

“We demand that FSTV open the doors and let people go where they want, and also we demand a meeting with the directorate at FSTV with all the tour operators’ heads and the heads of the unions etc.”

Yoni Rosado went on to show how typical booking activity and transactions with tourists are being stifled due to the wrong impression that’s being given to the cruise ship visitors: “I double-checked on Wednesday and sure enough there were three groups taken for cave tubing that had booked with persons on the outside and one group told me personally that they were told that we no longer exist; they don’t exist anymore.

“Our guests that have already booked with us, months before, cannot find us, because the doors that FSTV has inside, don’t mark exit, then if they don’t mark exit there are two or three security guards right in front of the door, with guns, so my question to FSTV and the tourism village, is where would you go to book a tour, if you have to go through a door with two securities with gun.

“The people that are booked with the tour operators online, they are trying to exit the FSTV but they can’t get out, so we see it urgently.”

Rosado went on to comment on the ill-chosen mechanisms being used to mark off the zone: “If you go to Fort Street in front of the Tourism Village, you don’t have to be smart; with a little bit of common sense you can see that something is wrong”, he said. “They have the tour guides and the taxi guides between two red cones that are marked ‘red zone’”, he stated. “Now I am not a big traveler.”, he explained, “[but] whenever you see a red zone, danger, so if you put tour guides and taxi guides and hair braiders and vendors between two cones that say ‘red zone’, it’s danger. Who came up with the idea to mark ‘red zone’ on the cones; the cones are already red; that needs to be corrected.”

Rosado went on to vow, that, although they do not intend to disrespect the BTB, the police or the dispatchers, “We will do whatever it takes because this is about justice; if we are wrong let the people of Belize tell us that we’re wrong.”

Amandala

Amen.............