#BTEditorial – Putting in our BEST efforts at tourism revival

Before the end of this week, the United States is expected to reach the grim milestone of 200 000 deaths due to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and near 7 million infections. We suspect it is a record of which the world’s leading industrialised nation is not particularly proud. It is a score that is stained with the blood of its own citizens and the latest news does not appear to contain prospects of brighter days to come.

Britain, a nation that holds particular importance to Barbados because of our historical, economic and tourism ties, has seen more than 394 000 cases of the infection recorded and 41 777 lives lost to date.

From all reports, the winter tourist season, on which Barbados is still pinning hopes for some small tourism successes going into 2021, will also, regrettably, coincide with what experts expect to be a second wave of the disease.

After suffering one of the most brutal outbreaks earlier in the year, and a near fatal error by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who failed to take COVID-19 as seriously as he should have and move to introduce measures to limit its spread, Britain is expected to face another round of infections in the cold winter months.

The United Kingdom, from which Barbados receives its longest staying visitors and highest spenders of any other group of visitors, had managed to flatten the curve in June. However, imbibed with the success of his efforts and his own personal triumph over the disease, PM Johnson eased restrictions. The pubs were reopened and throngs of young people flooded the streets after being holed up in their apartments for weeks.

Now citizens aged 20 to 29 are recording the highest infection rate in England, with 46 cases per 100 000 people. That is followed by people in their 30s.

“What we think is happening is that it’s mostly infecting younger people in particular parts of the country, and it’s not so much yet moving into the older and more vulnerable population,” explained Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London and scientific advisor to the British Government.

Here at home, Professor Avinash Persaud, special advisor to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, outlined some details to Government’s $300 million plan for the island’s ailing tourism sector and the thousands of Barbadians who are currently facing desperate times since the sector shut down six months ago.

The Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation Programme (BEST), as it has been dubbed, already backed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB), is supposed to deliver the “reengagement” of about 6 000 tourism workers.

We regard it as highly ambitious but the goodly professor suggests a further 4 000 jobs will be created by the Green Investment Plans of the BEST COVID Relief Programme. And with tourism arrivals still at very low levels, the Professor estimates that some 2 500 jobs will be created indirectly from this activity, resulting in a combined jobs impact of about 12 500 jobs overall.

For Barbados’ sake and that of individuals struggling to pay their rents and mortgages to financial institutions, we certainly hope the plans are on target.

But even with all these proposals for a return to some kind of normalcy in this country, the pall of COVID-19 still hangs over every aspect of our national recovery efforts.

Last June, orthodontic specialist Dr Vidya Armagan was almost hung and quartered on social media for his rebuke of the decision to reopen the country to international flights and the protocols. He felt the move left citizens at risk of exposure to imported cases of the disease.

Dr Armogan made a strong argument for having all passengers arriving on the island tested before they even boarded a plane in the originating country, and again when they landed. He insisted that temperature checks at the port of entry were simply not sufficient, and represented an improper way to screen for the illness.

With Barbados’ recently updated COVID-19 protocols mandating a negative PCR test to be completed at least 72 hours prior to arrival, Dr Armogan must certainly feel vindicated.