St Lucia tourism job losses

Government and tourism officials in St Lucia have been meeting to explore ways of preventing mass layoffs in the tourism sector because of the current economic downturn.



The meeting was a follow up to last month\'s talks between tourism and finance officials.



Tourism is St Lucia\'s main foreign exchange earner, but officials have warned that from April next year, bookings could be down by as much as 30 percent.



Stakeholders have been considering the possibility of reducing operating costs of hotels by allowing the government to reinvest some of its earnings into the productive sector.



Already the hotels are offering discounted rates.