GOVERNMENT IS BEING urged to wrestle with the issue of crime against visitors before it harms tourism, a critical, foreign exchange-earning industry.
The call has come from people who provide products and services directly to tourists, including taxi-drivers, jewellery sellers and chair renters – all concerned about recent attacks in which tourists have been robbed of jewellery and even shot.
Some told the SUNDAY SUN this past week, particularly since the shooting of a British couple, they have been hearing more tourists voice their concerns about crime in Barbados.
At the taxi stand in Holetown, St James, taxi-driver Ryan Marshall said: “Yesterday, I bring down two tourists that come off from Virgin Atlantic and when them get into the vehicle, the first thing them ask me is if the people who rob and shoot the tourist get lock up yet. I tell them yes and they start to talk about how they hear about it at home.
He called for the authorities to move swiftly to put measures in place to control crimes against tourists.
“From the way things looking now, this could cause serious damages to this island’s tourism product. And I know what I saying because I out here dealing with these tourists almost every day,” he added.
A female vendor in Holetown, who requested anonymity, was in agreement. She said that in the past couple of weeks she had noticed a slight increase in sales of her beaded and shell jewellery.
“Them [saying that they can’t wear them gold in Barbados anymore, so them buying these cheap jewellery that make from shells and beads,” she pointed out.
“I think what these robbers doing is bad and them making tourism in Barbados look bad and them making we look bad. A tourist even say that the crime against tourists making the country look bad.”
On Thunder Bay Beach in Weston, St James, Vagn Johnson, who has been renting tourists beach chairs for the past five years, admitted: “The tourists saying that the people at the hotel telling them that them ain’t supposed to wear no gold and them ain’t supposed to go in no isolated places.”
He added: But . . . nobody can’t rob no tourist ’bout here. I tell them that anything happen, just come here and tell me. I tell them that anybody come and harass them, to come here and let me know.
“This is a long beach and if they go in certain areas we can’t see them or what going on. So I does tell them to stop ’bout here with the chairs so that I could see them. It is my business so I got to look out for the tourists.”
In Speightstown, St Peter, a group of tourists was at Reefers and Wreckers Scuba Diving Shop, preparing for a dive. When asked how they felt about their overall safety on the island, they all said they felt quite fine.
Englishman Dan Beadle said that through the British media he had heard about the two tourists who were recently shot in broad daylight in Bridgetown.
“But that is just a one-off [incident], ain’t it?” he responded.
“I feel safe in Barbados. The people here are friendly and everybody is nice.”
