The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, is saddened and deeply concerned to hear of the recent shootings of Monday evening July 22nd, 2013. Our prayers go out for the victims and their families at this time and we hope for quick recoveries.
We would like to state that we openly condemn these senseless and cowardly crimes and violent activities. On an island as small as ours, with closely-knit family ties, tragedies such as this affect all of us.
With Tourism being the main generator that drives our economy, it is inevitable that our visitors too, will be concerned about these tragic and senseless acts. Already travel related sites like Trip Advisor are discussing this latest incident. We believe that the continuation of these kind of incidents will indeed erode our tourism product, unless we all recognize that we have a part to play in arresting and changing this behavior. Cancellations have already started coming in to our hotels with direct correlation to this incident. We plead with persons who may think of retaliation to resist from doing so. Our island is already dealing with the effects of the economic downturn and incidents of this kind only create more undue stress on our economy and the citizens of this island who work both in private and public sector. Our island can no longer afford this kind of behavior.
The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association promises to work in partnership with the RAPF and community leaders so that our island and our membership are well protected.
To this end, we will continue to seek to assist in any way that we can, and advise the Royal Anguilla Police Force that they can call on us for assistance in any way that they find necessary.
Yes, we can make a change, but that change can only begin with each of us.
Mr. Delroy A. Lake
President:
Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
