Call for Boycott of the Bill; Vendors say the move will “Kill” business  

By Dana Malcolm,

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, November 30, 2021 – “This bill is going to kill us. This is all we have, You will be taking a livelihood away from us if you move us across the street.”

Mere hours before Parliament met to discuss the new Beach Coastal Vending bill urgent calls came from vendors at Sapodilla Bay Beach for TCI islanders to boycott the bill.

The pleas came in the form of a video posted to Facebook in which a vendor who identified himself as Jerome Rigby called on ‘anyone who could help’. Rigby claimed that to move vendors across the beach would ‘absolutely decrease their income’.

He said, “I personally think that the government would be wasting their money…everyone that comes to the beach, they want to remain on the beach.”

Rigby acknowledged the need for some regulation and standardization along Sapodilla Bay but insisted that the vendors could co-exist with homeowners.

While he called for better facilities including restrooms, internet, and power he urged the government to think outside the box and work alongside the vendors to make them available on the actual beach.  He expressed the importance of authentic vendor-tourist interactions which he said stimulated repeat visits from guests.

He said “This is already our beach, this is our home, we can make this where entrepreneurs and homeowners exist…There need to be standards but we can all work together to implement those standards.”

He ended the video by producing petitions which he claimed had been signed by numerous people who want vendors to remain on the beach, saying, “People appreciate the service and the convenience we are providing to them. Please don’t take this away from us.”