It is a road that thousands of tourists travel every year to go cave tubing at the Caves Branch, but the road is rapidly deteriorating and stakeholders are up in arms. The dilapidated road is not only used for the tourism industry, but also by the nearby community of Franks Eddy. For Vitalino Reyes, the owner of cavetubing.bz, called on our newsroom today to say that in fifteen years, he has never seen the road in such a deplorable state, which is affecting business at a t time when the economy is weak.

Vitalino Reyes, Cavetubing.bz

“The road is so bad right now that all the tourists, not just from my company, but others as well. They complain about the roads and we usually have good ratings on trip advisor and lately there is three negative reviews not about my company but about the roads.”

Andrea Polanco

“So how long has the road been like this?”

Vitalino Reyes

Vitalino Reyes

“This road has been for like one yea r and a half like this and the paving for this road is actually very new but as soon as the rain started to come it started to be eroded. It looks like nobody cares so everybody comes here to get sand gravel from the river from the river, tour companies come here big companies yuh know come here for cave tubing, this is the top number one adventure in the world so it’s sad to see that they’re not doing anything.”

Andrea Polanco

“So what has the traffic been like at the back here, the street is normally busy?”

Vitalino Reyes

“Normally is busy especially on a cruise ship day like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it would be very busy. This is the top number one adventure so everyday we would have traffic in this area here.”

Andrea Polanco

“And the rainy season is about to start so you expect it to get worst?”

Vitalino Reyes

“Right because of the rain, this will be washed away. Whatever is bad right now will be completely worst eroded once the rainy season starts which is very close.”

Andrea Polanco

“So you believe if the road isn’t fixed do you believe it will affect business for all the people who operate along this highway?”

Vitalino Reyes

“Yes all the business and not only the business but the vans will be very damaged. Sometimes we are out of time so we have to go very fast and especially small cars have to go very slow the fastest you can go is five and ten miles and it’s still touching the bottoms.”

Reyes says he will contact businesses and associations that utilize the road, to attempt to improve the infrastructure.

Channel 5

COLA: Tour Operators Affected By Bad Road To Prime Destination

And as president of COLA, earlier this week, Moses Sulph also went out to Caves Branch properly known as the Nohoch Chen Reserve where tour operators have long been complaining about woeful road conditions.

It's the most visited tourist site in Belize - and tour operators have called on COLA to take their issue to the forefront. That's what Sulph did today and in an interview with 7news….

Moses Sulph
"The road is in a serious condition and I am not saying this to tick off anyone but it's the truth. If you have a place that is bringing in a substantial amount revenue to the country then I think you would want to give attention to the access to those places that us bringing those revenue and you would have wanted to make those people comfortable who are contributing that revenue to the country. as far as I understand the archaeological site that NICH runs there is $10 a head for each tourist that enters that site and in 2008-2009 approximately a million person enter that site - that's about ten million dollars, so I am saying that what NICH can do is basically used some of that money to go back to repair the road and make sure that road is upkeep. I went with the tours yesterday and some of the tourists who were on the buses were shaking up and all that, they are wondering why the road is in such condition."

The Minister of Works has told us that the road is on his radar, but he would have hoped that it was included in one of the recent foreign funded Tourism Development Projects.

Channel 7

The road to Caves Branch is deplorable

The boom in cruise tourism has opened up plenty of Belize’s natural resources for income generation. But the droves of buses that take tourists to the sites also have an impact on the roads. Taxes are being taken per head of tourist that enter sites such as Caves Branch for cave tubing. But the infrastructure is not being upgraded. That’s why some tour operators have gone to Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action to ask for help. COLA’s President, Moses Sulph, recently took a tour of the dilapidated road.

Moses Sulph, President of COLA

Moses Sulph

“The concern is basically after consulting with different tour operators who do runs to transport tourists to the Caves Branch Archeological Site run by NICH. The road is in a very terrible condition. I had heard about it but I went there and saw the whole thing firsthand. It is factual. For each tourist that enters a site there is a ten dollars collection and as far as the calculations, I was told that approximately a million tourists entered that site from 2008 to 2009. That is like ten million dollars. And if that is one of the revenue earners in this country, I think the government has got to do something about putting more attention to that road so that that it can be in a proper manner whereby the tourists who is bringing the revenue to the country can have a safer and also a comfortable journey to that road because it can be hazardous and dangerous—the conditions of the road. And clearly as I went up there and I looked at it and I see the whole thing, I am appauld at the whole the thing. I think that more attention needs to be given to that road. If ten million dollars are coming in from revenue from that site that leads to that road, then that road should be priority. There are other roads that have been mentioned that are to be fixed in the last couple months, but those roads aren’t bringing in any revenue of that substantial amount. I am not saying that those roads are not to be fixed also, but I am saying that this road obviously needs some attention and I think that the government need to use some of that revenue to upkeep the road leading to Caves Branch.”

Channel 5