Mitchell: Meeting to focus on cruise ships, Carnival security

TOURISM Minister Randall Mitchell told Newsday he is due to meet Minister of National Security StuartYoung and tourism officials to discuss security for tourists after the robbery of a British couple at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. Michael Wilson, 74, and his wife Sally Wilson, 72, had taken a Caribbean cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary but were robbed on Boxing Day, delaying their departure, but leading them to fly out on Sunday.

The ministerial duo will set a date to meet, within the next two weeks, for talks that will also include security arrangements for Carnival 2019. “With respect to cruise-ship tourists we’ll meet to find ways to improve security.”

Asked about young tour-guides seen down town when cruise-ships visit, he praised them as a top selling point of TT as a destination, as multi-lingual university graduates.

Regarding the British couple’s experience, Newsday asked if tourists could access guided tours to attractions such as the Magnificent Seven historical buildings at the Savannah?

Mitchell replied, “Tour operators operate from the Cruise Ship Complex. On the ship you can pre-book, or when you come onshore you can book a tour. But you can’t stop the tourist who wants to go sight-seeing about the city on their own. The new type of tourists want to submerge themselves in the local culture, so they just go walking and roaming and find their way back.”

He said in this Internet-era, tourists would have researched local attractions and seen it was just a 15 minute trip to the Savannah and opted to travel alone.

Regarding the Wilsons, Mitchell said it had been a crime of opportunity by someone passing in a car who slashed the straps of Mrs Wilson’s handbag but also ended up slashing her too. He said a ship’s agent had said this was the first such crime against a cruise-ship tourist in 30 years. “The police do an excellent job, but can’t be everywhere at all times, while criminals have the advantage of knowing where they will strike.” Mitchell said tour operators can alert local police stations ahead of them bringing tourists to a site, but things can get difficult when tourists go walking on their own even in a place like the Savannah that is not a hot-spot. He noted that incidents can happen in any country, and added, “But things can be improved.”