Antigua, famous for its 365 beaches and its sailing regatta, is one of the most popular Caribbean destinations for British tourists, after Barbados. It has also been perceived as one of the safer islands in a region that has the world’s highest murder rate (according to a report last year by the World Bank and the UN office on Drugs and Crime).

Visits to Antigua are usually incident-free and the advice for travellers on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website states that the main type of cases in which British nationals required consular assistance in 2007 were those of lost and stolen passports and detentions or arrests, mostly on drugs offences.

The website advises avoiding isolated areas, including beaches after dark, not carrying jewellery or large amounts of cash and says that there has been a recent increase in robberies from tourists. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said that its advice would not be changing in the light of the shootings.

Last year there were 19 murders in Antigua — an unpleasant surprise for a country of about 83,000 people that has been used to an average of seven killings per year — although this is nothing compared with Jamaica, where there were 1,574 murders in 2007.

The small, four-star Cocos Hotel and Restaurant is popular with honeymooners. It is featured by a number of British tour operators including Tropical Sky, whose commercial director Steve Garley said: “The perception is that it’s a safe destination, ranking alongside Grenada and Barbados, and I can’t think of a similar incident, going back over many years. The hotel is very relaxed and it is one of the last places on Earth that anyone would expect to see something like this.”

Tourism bosses will hope that this is an isolated incident. In Jamaica, some visitors are too scared to leave the safety of their hotel compounds and contribute virtually nothing to the local economy. Antigua and Barbuda are among the most prosperous Caribbean islands.

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