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WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao, Oct 23 2015, CNS – Trinidad and Tobago’s Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe has described as “quite unfortunate” a travel advisory from the United Kingdom alerting its citizens of the double murder of British national Richard Wheeler and his Trinidadian wife, Grace, at their home in Tobago on Tuesday.
“Nobody welcomes a travel advisory. Nobody is excited about a travel advisory nowhere in the Caribbean whether it’s Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago but we just have to take these things in strides and do what we have to do on our end to make sure that Trinidad and Tobago is safe,” Cudjoe said.
This is a high period for tourism in Tobago and Cudjoe said the island is getting ready to have a bumper season as it relates to cruise arrivals.
She is assuring those planning to visit the country that it’s safe to do so.
“We know what we have to do and we are working diligently to ensure that Tobago is safer to avoid issues of this nature happening in the future so that tourists could be more encouraged to come and that residents and nationals of Tobago could live with better peace of mind,” she said.
Wheeler, 73, and hos 67-year-old wife were found dead at their Riseland Gardens home. Wheeler, an attorney, was found hacked to death, while his wife’s throat was slashed. The couple had made Tobago their home 16 years ago.
“I want to express my deepest sympathy to the Wheeler family. They are longstanding residents of the Tobago community,” Cudjoe said.
