The interest rates that banks charge tourist business operators are too high, Minister of Tourism Gerald Hadeed said yesterday."Recently, I had a meeting with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Trade where we discussed the possibility of getting concessionary rates for the small business enterprises that offer tours in T&T. We have a meeting carded this week with the bankers to discuss the possibility of getting reduced interest rates. This would help the operators to run profitably."High interest rates could never be an incentive to small business people," he said in his address at a tourism conference hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Development Company (TDC) at the Hilton Hotel and Conference Centre,
Hadeed said the Ministry of Tourism is implementing measures to create a safe environment, not only for foreign tourists but locals who use beaches."We are discussing with the Ministry of National Security the possibility of having patrols on the beaches where special marked vehicles would be moving along the beaches to ensure that everyone would have safety. We want to implement immediately CCTV cameras on beaches. This will give additional safety," he said.
Keith Chin, CEO of TDC, spoke said the Caribbean remains the most tourism dependent region in the world."It directly and indirectly employs 2.2 million persons accounting for one in every eight jobs and 14.2 per cent of the Caribbean's economic activity," he said."Safety and security has always been a indispensable condition for travel. However, it has grown in importance over the last two decades due to terrorist acts, local conflicts, natural disasters, epidemics and pandemics."The stark reality is that we now live in an age of global tourism where the whole perception and concept of safety and security is being defined."