Transport Minister Terry Lister issued a challenge to Hamilton retailers to open their shops on Sundays if they want the Government to continue transporting tourists to them. Sounds good when taken at face value but the retailers responded by saying please remove the restrictions you are placing on us and we will gladly oblige. If we are truly interested in tourism why do we restrict opening hours on Sundays? It is ludicrous to have thousands of tourists transported to Hamilton and St. George's on a Sunday morning only to find out that shops are not allowed to open until after 12pm or1pm
Let's face it, businesses will only open on a Sunday if it is profitable to do so. The Government should be pulling every lever available to facilitate this, not placing the blame at the feet of business. This is similar to three months ago when the Premier accused stores of "raping" customers in order to deflect some of the heat. Which reminds me, how has the Price Commission also announced at this time been coming along? This electioneering does nothing to address the real problems retailers are having with profitability.
We can assume the major stumbling block with businesses opening extended hours on a Sunday is the Church. This is where we must ask ourselves if we really want to be a serious tourist destination. We are currently not living up to our visitors expectations, they are not receiving value for money. This is a most difficult situation which will not be satisfactorily resolved with an election in the near future.
