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Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy (left), chatting with CEO of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA), Dr. Kerry Hall, at the Organisation of American States (OAS) Tourism Security Training Seminar that was held in conjunction with the BTPA, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the Government of Canada at the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) headquarters yesterday.

Crime prevention a top priority for Tourism Ministry

Protecting visitors from all forms of criminal activity is one of the top priorities of the Ministry of Tourism.

This is according to Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy, who spoke at the Organisation of American States (OAS) Tourism Security Training Seminar, which was held in conjunction with the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA), the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the Government of Canada, yesterday at the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) headquarters.

He stated that last year, this island would have welcomed a little under 1.3 million visitors to these shores. Therefore, the focus must be first and foremost on protecting these visitors, but also on how to help them afterwards, should they fall victim to criminal activity.

“The truth is that if you include both cruise and long-stay, we had about just under 1.3 million visitors to Barbados in 2016. That is significantly larger than our population and we want to avoid, as much as possible, crimes occurring among our visitor community, but we also want to ensure comfort in the aftermath of such important incidences and our team of course is well aware that we cannot be complacent about this. We must embrace opportunities like this workshop to enhance the skills, the expertise and even to introduce technology to our security personnel to equip them to respond to the challenges.”

The Minister of Tourism said that the region has always been viewed as one of the safer destinations for travel and tourism. As such, it is something that they have incorporated into their branding. However, incidents occurring in recent times have shown them that they need to be alert for the possibility of criminal activity.

“For a long time, our Caribbean region has been considered to be a safe zone and a secure haven, far away from the threats of other destinations. In fact, we have adopted it as one of our brand elements – safety and security ... and we all know that that brand element – safety and security has become a major concern for all travellers and we are constantly reminded of it every time we are at the airport and you have to take off your shoes or you have to pass through a body scanner, we are reminded again of the importance of the effort of being vigilant. So the success of our destination very much depends on our ability to provide safety and security. We have tended to focus on some of the upscale brand elements with a lot more attention than this one but it just as important.”

In fact, crime against visitors has become a topic for discussion and it is an area that must be addressed, especially in a country like Barbados that is primarily dependent on tourism.

“Crime of course is quite topical in the region in the context of its occurrence against visitors and our perception as a region, where crime is taking place. We are a tourism- dependent region – virtually, totally tourism dependent. As a matter of fact, in terms of percentages – GDP and the region, we are the most tourism- dependent region in the world and therefore, this threat to the development of our industry, it can frustrate our efforts at maintaining a quality of life for all of our citizens and therefore the Government must be in a position – and the citizens – to make sure that we don’t have to deal with these unfortunate attacks and so this collaboration would greatly assist us in implementing measures as well to reduce crime across the island.”

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Crime prevention a top priority for Tourism Ministry | Barbados Advocate

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