Prime Minister not concerned about effect of UK lockdown on tourist arrivals

Prime Minister Mia Mottley is confident that a lockdown in the United Kingdom, Barbados’ main source market for visitors, should not have a major impact on the island’s struggling tourism sector or its employees.

She said the Government has been proactive in putting measures in place to help the sector, following major fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic which halted travel earlier this year.

Last Saturday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced tough restrictions, including curbs on travel and closure of non-essential establishments, due to a second wave of COVID-19 in that country. Residents are banned from travelling outside the country, except for work purposes.

The new limitations are to come into effect on Thursday and remain in place until December 2.

“It would have been a disruptive influence for us had we not already planned on putting in place the arrangements, not for one or two months, but for 24 months to support the wages of our . . . entire tourism sector, should persons want it,” said Mottley at an update ceremony on the Estates at St George on Wednesday.

She said she was aware the Government had a role to play in helping sectors that are in need at this time, and it was with that in mind that the Barbados Employment and Sustainable Tourism (BEST) programme was introduced.

“There are some matters where only the Government can step in, particularly where those aspects of the private economy are imploding. We have stepped up to the cause with that, with respect to the BEST programme in tourism,” she said.

A major plank of the two-part $300 million BEST programme is the provision of grants to cover tourism firms’ re-engagement with their workers and a limited voluntary separation package. It is also designed to fund the firms’ investment plans.

Under the initiative, which was implemented over a month ago, Government gives companies an equity investment to enable them to offer workers a re-engagement programme for 24 months, at 80 per cent of their pay as at December 2019, up to a limit of $4 880 per month.

Defending Government’s spending on training and digitisation at this time, as well as stimulus packages to support small businesses and those in the tourism, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, Mottley insisted that all of that should place the country in a better position once the pandemic eases.

“If we don’t use this time now to build, to green, to digitise, to train and to repurpose ourselves generally, we will find that at the end of the period we will continue to have to play catch-up with those who determined that they would use this time wisely,” the Prime Minister said.

“At the same time, the Government has also made it clear that we will partner with the private sector in critical areas where public-private partnerships can deliver for the benefit of the people of this nation, goods and services that hitherto would not otherwise be available or must depend on the fiscal space available to the Government,” she added.