Vaccine hope for tourism sector

Tourism officials are optimistic that an effective COVID-19 vaccine will result in a boost in visitor arrivals to the island in the medium- to long-term.

Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Geoffrey Roach said the association was closely monitoring the development that vaccines could soon become available in a number of Barbados’ source markets.

“One of the major issues with that is certainly going to be the logistics around how it is rolled out in the source markets – who gets it when and how quickly,” said Roach.

Several countries, including the United Kingdom, United States and Germany, have already indicated they could start vaccinations as early as next month.

Roach said while this was a positive development, it was still unlikely that travel would rebound in any hurry. However, he pointed out that since the first announcement that a vaccine could be introduced soon, there was a spike in the number of individuals looking at the possibility of making travel arrangements.

“What we certainly have been told by the tour operators we spoke with (two weeks ago) is that once the announcement was made about the vaccines that the searches for travel, and travel to Barbados, actually started to increase. So, I think what happened is that young people are hopeful that with a vaccine they will be able to travel with a little bit more relaxation in
terms of protocols and controls,” said Roach.

“So there is the likelihood the vaccine will be positive for the industry, but it is likely to be medium- to long-term.”

It is expected that once a vaccine becomes available, Barbados will initially receive enough for an estimated 20 per cent of its population. Workers in the tourism industry, health workers, other frontline workers and people with underlying medical conditions are likely to be in the first batch to receive the highly-anticipated vaccine.

Meantime, the local accommodation sector has been capitalising on the recently introduced 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp.

Some villa owners and even hoteliers have been making slight modifications to their operations as they seek to welcome whatever business comes.

Chief Executive Officer of the BHTA Senator Rudy Grant said the villa market has definitely been benefiting from the programme, which encourages people to work remotely from Barbados for up to a year.

“They have seen some good business coming there. Some of the hotels as well have seen that. It is an opportunity to get more persons coming to the destination.

We have all of the attributes necessary for persons to be able to work remotely and we are seeing greater interest being expressed in the Welcome Stamp. So it is something that has been positive for accommodation, particularly the villa element and to some extent the traditional accommodation by way of hotels,” said Grant.

A recent analysis by real estate firm Terra Caribbean showed that the majority of those taking advantage of the scheme budgeted between US$2 500 and US$5 000 monthly for rent and have shown a preference for renting a house.

As of November 2020, applications for the Welcome Stamp totalled just over 1 900, of which about 1 500 were approved.