Tourism threat

RECKLESS gun play could have a serious impact on Barbados’ image as a tourism destination and by extension the country’s major source of foreign exchange. For this reason, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds is calling emphatically for it to stop.

Yesterday, the Minister revealed to members of the media that shots rang out in St. Lawrence Gap on Monday night, triggering a meeting with tourism stakeholders and the Royal Barbados Police Force yesterday morning to discuss how this problem can be arrested. He stressed that this is not only a problem for visitors, but for the country as a whole.

“Once you have a weapon being discharged in a tourist area you are going to have guests that are traumatised, not just complaining. And we can’t afford that,” Symmonds said.

He lamented that complaints have already been made. “When people are going out – and this is not just guests, Barbadians – going to a restaurant for dinner on Friday or Saturday night or any other day and you are confronted with a situation like that, you will take the mental decision not to go back out there – I will choose to do something else, I will stay at home.”

Minister Symmonds stated that these reckless actions come at a time when Barbados is seeking to meander its way out of the financial quagmire it is seeking to escape, and at a time when the country is “maxed out” when it comes to borrowing.

He revealed that these acts of violence also come at a time when Barbados is poised to do “exceptionally well” in tourism arrivals out of Great Britain and the United States.

“But what we cannot do and will never be able to tolerate is that all this effort is taking place and then we have recklessness and unbridled lawlessness destroying the country’s ability to pay its bills. That, Barbados must never tolerate and cannot accept.”