The BTA

When I was appointed as Chairman of the Bequia Tourism Committee the island was a much simpler place. There were very few hotels and restaurants and, although we enjoyed excellent yachting tourism, people arriving by air were not as frequent as they are today.   Bequia was not easy to get to and its amenities were pretty basic and, because of this, only the hardiest of visitors ventured to what was considered a very remote destination in the Caribbean. The opening of Bequia’s airport coincided with a sharp increase in the island’s amenities, and my role as Chairman became increasingly senseless. Tourism was changing quickly, and Bequia needed more than a small advisory committee that was rarely listened to by the Department of Tourism on the mainland!

The tourism building on the jetty was faithfully run by the secretary Althea Gregg, an appointment made and paid for by the government. She manned the small office during the day, and took minutes at all the committee meetings. Althea was also responsible for equipping and paying the appointed “Beach Guards”, individuals who had been hired to rake and clean the island’s beaches each day. I had queried the “guard” label attached to these workers more than once; their job was to CLEAN the beaches, not to GUARD them, but my views concerning the job description fell on deaf ears.

I approached Son Mitchell about my growing concerns over the ineffectiveness of the tourism committee, the island was changing fast and needed more than a government-appointed advisory board. The committee HAD accomplished quite a bit during my 11 year tenure,  but not nearly enough to keep up with the increase in tourism.  In my opinion we needed something more pro-active in place, such as a Chamber of Commerce, but the Prime Minister was content to leave things as they were. Whenever I tried to resign from my post he would just laugh, telling me it was an assigned position that I couldn’t resign from. It was very frustrating, and that frustration came to a head when a young German lady named Heike was murdered in broad daylight at Tony Gibbons beach.

The murder was an incident that shocked Bequia, a peaceful island unused to such random acts of violence. The woman had ventured alone to the beach, and had been strangled to death by a mainlander. This senseless act had been witnessed and the murderer arrested, but the entire community wanted to ensure that it never happened again. A public meeting was called, and a large collection of Bequians as well as foreign home-owners gathered at The Old Fig Tree to discuss what could be done. I was rather perturbed when the role of the beach guards and their failure to protect the beaches was criticized, but then why was I surprised when I had questioned the job title for beach cleaners years previously? These “guards” were paid a pittance, and were armed with rakes, wheelbarrows and garbage bags, not VHF radios and weapons!

The murder was, for me, the straw that broke the camel’s back. I went to the Prime Minister and told him in no uncertain terms that Bequia had to move with the times, we needed to create our own ways and means of promoting tourism. The Bequia Tourist Committee had become useless in a rapidly-changing environment and so, in my opinion, had his Department of Tourism. THIS time Son listened to me, and gave his blessing for the creation of something to take the advisory committee’s place.

The Bequia Tourism Association was formed in 1999 after a meeting of the island’s business community at the Gingerbread Restaurant. It would be a non-profit organization paid for and run by Bequia’s business-people to promote and market tourism for the Island, an organization that had been sorely needed for several years.  Bequia’s businesses would pay annual membership fees to cover its costs, and the response to this plan by attendees was strong and positive. I was relieved that something was finally moving in the right direction, and politely declined any notion of sitting on the board in any capacity. I SERIOUSLY never wanted to attend any more tourism meetings, and that night I made a promise to myself – no more meetings! The BTA worked like a charm, and I cheerfully paid the annual fees for Mac’s Pizzeria and Bequia Villa Rentals for many years. I also kept that promise to myself, and never again attended another tourism meeting!