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According to Prime Minister Basdeo Panday both the Media and Tobagonians are guilty of damaging the image of Trinidad as a tourist destination.
Both were criticized by Mr. Panday when he spoke at the official launch of the Crowne Plaza Trinidad Hotel, formerly the Holiday Inn, on Friday September 1, 2000.
Present at the opening was Miss Universe, Miss India Lara Dutta.
Crowne Plaza is a franchise from Bass Hotels and Resorts which operate more than 2800 hotels worldwide. The local Crowne Plaza franchise is owned by Allied Hotels, whose Chairman is local businessman Issa Nicholas.
Having expressed his delight with the improvements made by Nicholas to the hotel, Panday went on to say that no matter how satisfied the the expectation of the guest, "the destination itself continues to suffer untold damage", first "by the pervasive and dramatic presentation of crime transmitted by our news media and subsequently by the Internet". A concern brought to his attention by the president of the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurant and Tourism Association, he said.
Then Tobago.
"Very regrettably, the perception that Trinidad is unsafe for visitors is also promoted by certain persons in Tobago in order to discourage visitors to that island from visiting Trinidad", Mr. Panday said.
But, he said, the bigger problem was the media and "what our media are telling the world, particularly through the internet, that say, the Barbados media and the Bahamas media are not saying about those countries via the internet".
He said the media in those countries "by priority and placement", are not making crime the big story, and thus the automatic lead story on their online versions.
"That degree of responsible judgement does not represent a compromise of journalistic freedom, as any Bajan or Bahamian would readily tell you," Mr. Panday said.