OPEN BOOK
By VOICE Correspondent

Two Government Min-isters on Friday January 18th 2008, made known that the practice of covering up crimes committed against visitors was to be discontinued.
Speaking at a press conference held at the Conference Room of the Saint Lucia Tourist Board, Tourism Minister Senator Allen Chastanet stated that it was a wrong policy to remain quiet about criminal acts against visitors. From now on, we intend to keep an open book in that regard.
“This Government has made a decision that we are not hiding this anymore,” Senator Chastanet pointed out.
The press conference was called following the robbery on Thursday of six visitors while on a nature tour in the west coast district of Soufriere.
To add to the heinousness of the act, there was the brutal kicking of the female guide when she attempted to contact the authorities for help. She was able to take her cellular phone out of her bag, but one of the attackers saw her, and they subsequently proceeded to kick her.
This caused injuries to her, as a result of which she is undergoing medical attention and counseling in the future to assist her recovery.

However the significant factor coming out of the incident is that the Government of Saint Lucia has decided that it will no longer condone the sweeping under the rug of crimes committed against visitors.
Tourism Minister Chastanet pointed out that the strides being made to develop Saint Lucia’s tourism product can be wiped away if such brutal acts are allowed to continue.
Communications Minister Guy Joseph, speaking at the press conference, stated that Saint Lucia is lucky that the firing of the weapon and injuring or even killing one of the visitors did not happen.
He pointed out that Saint Lucia was very lucky that the worst did not happen to any of these visitors; the consequences of which would be too dire to contemplate.
With a number of new developments poised to make the Saint Lucia tourism product more competitive, amidst growing global challenges, Saint Lucians were warned that such attacks against visitors are not isolated in nature, but an attack against the economic survival of Saint Lucia and that of all of her inhabitants.
This is even more important since similar incidents in a number of Caribbean destinations have resulted in a major downturn in those countries’ tourism industry.
According to Colin Hunte, president of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, crime must be dealt with not on the superficial level, but at the sources.
Peter Devaux was of the opinion that if Saint Lucia’s reputation has to be dealt with, then such incidents must be dealt with expeditiously and effectively.