The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

 As a Bahamian citizen I am very concerned about the potential fallout that the daring (alleged) attempted daylight heist at Atlantis could have for our tourism industry. The alleged culprits have very small minds. They don't seem to understand that such a reckless action could cause our number one industry to go to hell in a hand basket. With The Bahamas already receiving stiff competition from other Caribbean tourist destinations who are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to out perform this country's tourism sector, the last thing we need is for a couple of unscrupulous young Bahamian men committing robbery at the world renown resort and casino.

In the business section of the September 25th edition of The Nassau Guardian, the Minister of Tourism and Aviation Obie Wilchcombe also expressed concerns about the incident at Atlantis. Says Wilchcombe, ''Even though the numbers are pretty much on one island (New Providence), it is affecting the entire country. Whatever happens in our country is going to affect us all. I am deeply concerned because I know how technology works and how information is spread.''

The minister of tourism also told Guardian reporter Scieska Adderley that he had received a briefing in which he was informed that The Bahamas is considered to be a very high crime rate destination. I couldn't agree more with the minister. As it has for the past 50 plus years, tourism is the goose that lays the golden egg for this country. I dare say that over 60 per cent of the Bahamian workforce is in some way, shape or form either directly or indirectly employed in the tourism industry. I cannot understand why anyone would want to hazard this country's main livelihood. As Bahamians, we all have a stake in this important industry. Without tourism I cannot even begin to imagine what life would be like in this country. Certainly our standard of living would not have been the envy of the region.

  Now, the reason that I have chosen to quote the honourable minister of tourism is because he is a Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) member of Parliament and he is a senior member of Prime Minister Perry G Christie's cabinet. The readership of this daily would recall that in April of this year the then official opposition PLP erected several controversial billboards across New Providence that highlighted the record number of murders that the country had recorded between May of 2007 and April of 2012. One of the billboards read: ''Under the FNM government, 490 plus murders.'' A few of these billboards were placed in areas that are frequented by tourists.

According to one of the prominent newspapers in New Providence, one of the billboards was on the Saunders Beach roundabout and another one was in Montagu – two areas that are frequented by hundreds of tourists. Realising the disastrous consequences that such negative advertising could have for our number one industry, the then governing Free National Movement (FNM) made the prudent decision to have the billboards removed. Needless to say, this decision by the Ingraham administration did not sit too well with the PLP. The then government was accused of suppressing free speech.

As the opposition party at that particular time, the PLP had every right to criticise the FNM government's handling of the murder crisis that had gripped the nation. As a concerned Bahamian citizen who has also been deeply impacted by the crime of murder, I too was critical of the FNM administration concerning its apparent inability to get a handle on the murder crisis. But I believe that the PLP had crossed the line by placing massive billboards showcasing the excessively high murder rate in tourist areas. I don't care what anyone says, those billboards could have had  profound ramifications for the tourism sector. Back then I stated that the PLP should not air the country's dirty laundry in public. The same way Wilchcombe is deeply concerned about the alleged incident at Atlantis and how that information could spread around the world and hurt tourism, I too was deeply concerned about the hundreds of tourists reading about the 490 plus murders on the PLP billboards and then spreading that information abroad. If tourists do not feel that it is safe in The Bahamas, then they will not vacation here. And if that were to happen, all Bahamians would be affected, whether they are PLPs or FNMs. As Wilchcombe so wisely stated, whatever happens in this country is going to affect us all. I just wish that the PLP was as deeply concerned back in April about advertising our murder crisis to hundreds of tourists as it is today about potential visitors reading about the Atlantis incident.

But I guess winning an election back then was more important than protecting our number one industry. Just a thought for the readership to ponder.

 KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,Grand Bahama

October 1, 2012.