Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
People’s National Movement (PNM) Minority Leader Kelvon Morris is blaming both Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Chief Secretary Farley Augustine for Tobago’s current decline in tourism.
According to Morris, both the PM and Augustine’s hand in the United States radar being placed in Tobago have led to a decline in tourist arrivals during the Christmas season.
Addressing PNM supporters at a meeting in Charlotteville on Saturday, Morris pointed to the ongoing military tensions between the US and Venezuela, saying no one will choose Tobago as a tourism destination now. He added that the radar is not a gift to the island, but military-grade equipment installed in preparation for war.
Morris said, “I’m here to tell you that thing that they are calling a Christmas gift is in fact, see that radar that they brought and they placed and installed at the ANR International Airport, that isn’t no ordinary radar. You have the commercial type radar that they normally put at airports, but that radar that they brought there, it is a military-grade radar that you install in places when you are preparing for war and therefore, when your Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister agreed to bring that radar to Tobago, what they actually did is place a bullseye fleet between two warring nations.” he said.
“The first thing they attempt to do is to take out, to destroy whatever provides their enemies with insight and what we do immediately is attempt to take out that radar and where is that radar located? That radar is located right here in Tobago.”
He said the radar can not only lead to the potential death of tourism but people as well.
“So, I’m saying to you, if God forbid this conflict escalates and war breaks out between the US and Venezuela, the next thing we will hear in Tobago is ‘boom’ and when that bomb goes off, many of us or most of us may not even be around to tell the rest of the story and this is why this election is so critical, because it is about our very life and our livelihoods because notwithstanding the fact that we may end up dead, even as we speak the presence of that radar has killed our tourism sector.”
Referencing news headlines that suggest a blue Christmas season for many hoteliers, guest house and bed-and-breakfast operators in Tobago, he said the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association is blaming this squarely on the ongoing military tensions between the US and Venezuela.
He said as a result, many tourists are aware of what’s taking place and are not interested in visiting the island due to safety concerns.
“Because think about it, if you were to choose a tourism destination, will you choose as a Tobagonian to go to Gaza? Will you choose to go to Ukraine? Will you choose to go in any destination where there’s war or even rumours of war brewing? And therefore just like you all, the outsiders, all the tourists in Europe and North America et cetera, they are quite aware as to the conflict that is happening, they are quite aware that Tobago, the Prime Minister and Farley colluded to put a radar in Tobago and therefore we are a threat and therefore no tourists in their right mind at this time wants to come here and that is crippling the tourism sector, so it is affecting the hotels.”
He said usually, hotel occupancy on the island would be about 75 per cent at this time.
“Do you know what is the occupancy this time, this Christmas? It is about 35 per cent.”
He said reef operators are also complaining that they are no longer able to pay their rent because of the lack of tourists.
He also accused Augustine of pretending to be unaware the radar would be placed in Tobago in the first place.
“This is what Farley and Kamla Persad-Bissessar has done to our tourism sector in Tobago. They have killed the tourism sector and our lives, our very lives is now at stake.”
