On the face of it, choosing a head for the Saint Lucia Tourist Board appears simple. But the facts prove something else. Way back when, under the John Compton administration, the successful candidate for Tourism Director (who did precisely what chairmen are expected to do today) was a flamboyant Nigerian named Lennox Atigby (or was his first name Leonard?). He seldom dressed in regular garb, preferring instead to be seen in native dress.
On the rare occasions when he wore to government cocktail parties expensive Saville Row three-piece suits, it was usually his accent that drew the most attention. After all, he was black, like so many others in attendance, so why did he speak so differently? In no time at all Mr Atigby would be regaling his audiences with stories of time spent in the UK and in other zones European. He was especially attractive to the opposite sex, so much so that he was nicknamed Mr Hotcock by a leading, quite possibly envious, hotelier, and his clothes made fun of. One tourism honcho described him to a visiting journalist as “the guy wearing the bedspread!”
Atigby was permitted to stay on when Allan Louisy replaced Compton, despite that the new order of the day was “Saint Lucians first!” At any rate, until he was replaced under duress with a Saint Lucian who went on to make his own unique mark on local tourism. And then there was the hotelier who gave up the position soon after Agnes Francis suggested there might be in his appointment a conflict of interest element. The tourist board chairman resigned soon afterward, on the sound premise that “perception is everything.”
In more recent times former minister Allen Chastanet had also come in for public pressure, on the basis that he owned a hotel and might use his position for personal interest. The senator soon after taking office was forced to explain the hotel was not his and that he had sacrificed all personal interest in it so as to be of service to Saint Lucia generally.
And now the reliable word is that the new tourism minister has fingered Matthew Beaubrun of Cox & Company as chairman of the SLTB. Did someone say “simply beautiful?”
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