Crime hits Tobago tourism sector

With the gruesome murder of two Swedes and the robbery and assault of two British women, Tobago's tourism industry has taken a severe hit to its reputation. And tourism officials, worried that their industry might face the consequences Antigua is currently facing after a British couple was murdered while honeymoon in some months ago, are engaging in serious damage control across Europe.

This, even as the British Foreign and Commonwealth office issued updated its crime advisory on Tobago, which states that,"although most visits to Tobago are trouble free, crime against tourists in Tobago and the inability of the Tobago authorities to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators remains a concern. The authorities on the island are taking positive steps and the situation is beginning to improve."

The advisory noted that a resident Swedish couple were murdered at their villa in Bon Accord on October 9, 2008 and British visitors were subject to a robbery and sexual assault at their villa in the Black Rock area on October 20, 2008. "Caution is therefore advised when renting villas in the south west of the island."

Tobago's growing crime problem is part of a even bigger crime problem in sister-island Trinidad, where murders have surpassed 440 so far this year, a record for the island which recorded just over 300 murders in 2007.