Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe revealed yesterday that there is a lot of criminal activity happening at Festival Place on Prince George Wharf.

The minister, who was responding to feedback of the murder of Chicago native, Kyle Bruner, told reporters on Tuesday that he has been notified of drugs and prostitution taking place at the welcome centre for cruise ships.

“I have great difficulty with a matter at Festival Place,” he said.

“We are hearing about incidences that we believe if we do not arrest, will be more than embarrassing for the country. It also speaks to the deterioration of the morals of our society and when that happens we have some serious issues. We are hearing about a lot of solicitation, drugs being sold and a very troubling situation with prostitution involving boys.”

Minister Wilchcombe said all of this is taking place in front of tourists.

“We understand that these people are soliciting visitors,” he said.

“We understand that desperation sometimes necessitates what people do but that doesn’t make sense. The police are doing the best that they can. It also annoys me when I hear the Leader of the Opposition [Dr. Hubert Minnis] speak on such things. When the Free National Movement (FNM) stopped tourism policing, things deteriorated. If it was left, it would have reaped benefits. We had a force out there intended to protect the hot spots for tourism but what we are seeing right now is that many areas are not being properly managed in terms of security because there are limitations.”

The tourism minister said when “the nonsense of pointing fingers” stops and people start looking at issues collectively, the country will be better off.

“We do not miss the fact that we are responsible because we are the government right now but it’s high time that politicians learn to be more mature in handling situations,” Minister Wilchcombe said.

“This is not an issue that happened overnight. These issues have been manifesting so unless we become mature people about these things then we won’t progress. We need to have more police presence. We are a tourism destination and because we’re doing plenty things we have to properly protect the things that bring us money. Tourists will stay on the cruise ships and not come off. They will stay over on Paradise Island and not come over and that’s not tourism.”

Mr. Wilchcombe was talking to reporters about crime and its impact on tourism especially in light of Bruner’s death.

Bruner was killed early Sunday morning after he attempted to stop a man from robbing a woman who was in a group with him.

The incident took place on Mackey and East Bay Streets around 4:30 a.m.