Scepticism on vaccine among tourism frontline staff

There are mixed feelings among frontline tourism workers when it comes to taking the COVID-19 vaccine as some of them remain “cautious and fearful”, according to Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Senator Rudy Grant.

However, the key industry official revealed that more of these frontline workers were becoming more willing to take the jab once their questions were answered and their colleagues shared their experience.

BHTA officials said based on interactions with members, the number of people willing to take the vaccine varies from as low as “below 50 per cent” to as high as 80 per cent.

“We are in the process of compiling information in relation to the persons who are willing to take the vaccine. We have been seeing in some tourism enterprises the number of employees being as high as 70 per cent, but we have also seen in other tourism enterprises where the number of employees willing to take the vaccine has been low,” said Grant.

Stating that he believed the benefits of the vaccine “far outweigh the risks”, Grant, who along with Chairman of the BHTA Geoffrey Roach, received their first jabs this week, said he was satisfied with the smooth process.

However, the high-ranking tourism official said he was concerned about the length of time it was taking for the injection to be administered.

“Some of our members have reported that it has taken a bit long. We continue to encourage Government to look at utilizing a project manager for some of these things who can look at the processes. The BHTA has communicated to Government that we are certainly willing to assist in that regard,” said Grant.

Chairman Roach further pointed out that after BHTA members engaged their team members it was found that there were companies where the percentage of staff willing to take the vaccine has been less than 50 per cent.

“I think that sometimes came from a position of a level of discomfort with not knowing, and uncertainty,” he said.

However, Roach noted that the BHTA continued to encourage its members to engage their staff. He anticipated that more people will take the vaccine once they were better educated.

“It is really a case of active engagement of those persons who are at this point unwilling or uncertain about whether they should take the vaccine or not,” said Roach.

“The more engagement that is taking place, the more persons are informed they would take the vaccine. So there have been some tourism enterprises that have come back to us and said we need to increase the numbers because more persons are saying they want to have the vaccine.

“The other thing we are observing is that as persons go and get the vaccine and communicate with their coworkers, there is also a desire for those who would not have been willing to take the vaccine to do that,” Grant added. (MM)