BARBADOS REMAINS A “safe and secure” tourism destination despite the recent spike in violent crime.
The assurance has been given by chief executive officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Rudy Grant in the wake of yesterday’s reports of the murder of a 58-year-old Barbadian following an alleged robbery at a Black Rock automatic teller machine.
Grant said the BHTA did not “share any concern with respect to any increase in criminal activity.”
He pointed out the umbrella organisation which represents hotel and other related tourism interests engaged in ongoing collaboration with the Royal Barbados Police Force “because it is important that Barbados continues to be a safe and secure destination.
“The truth is that matters related to security and crime are principally within the domain of the Royal Barbados Police Force” Grant added. “But I have to say that it (crime) is not at a stage where it is impacting in any way on our tourism industry or that we are getting any reports [of concern] coming out of our source markets” the BHTA CEO responded when questioned by the media about the effect of the recent spate of crime.
Grant said: “We will continue to give our support to the Royal Barbados Police Force and we will provide whatever actions we can to help them as they deal with criminal activities.”
The Royal Barbados Police Force assigns a tourism liaison officer to the tourism sector in addition to visible police patrols in areas frequented by visitors, such as the Hastings Boardwalk which is patrolled by police on Segway scooters.(GC)
