A report in the ISTANBUL – Hurriyet Daily News today states that a Turkish company, Global Liman Isletmeleri, the port administration unit of Global Investment Holdings, is looking to purchase the Belize Tourism Village and a port in Roatan, Honduras.

Global’s 100-percent affiliate, Global Liman Isletmeleri, recently initiated talks to purchase the Belize and Roatan facilities, according to a statement from Global Yatirim Holding quoted in the Hürriyet Daily News.

The Belize Tourism Village is located in Belize city and is managed jointly by Fort Street Tourism Village and Diamonds International of Florida, serving up to 850,000 cruiser passengers annually.

Roatan Port, on the Roatan Island of Honduras, is run in a partnership between Royal Caribbean Cruises – at 99 percent – and the Honduras government. The port serves 400,000 cruiser passengers annually.

When Belize and Roatan ports are added to Global Liman’s current portfolio, the cruiser port network of the company will be among the most prominent in the world with a passenger capacity of 4.5 million claims the newspaper report.

The newspaper report described the facility in Belize as a port which it is not. The Belize Tourism Village is a marine terminal and consists of a complex of retrofitted warehouse buildings utilized as a tourism shopping center and a point of disembarkation for cruise ship passengers. Cruise ship passengers are transported to Belize City by water taxis as cruise ships have to anchor a couple of miles from the coast due to shallow waters. The Port of Belize is a separate entity that does have a port facility and pier but handles cargo vessels only.