#BTEditorial – Do what has to be done

Passing the buck, or throwing the can down the road, is never a good strategy when confronting difficult situations. That approach leads one to falsely believe that there is more time to resolve an issue, when that is far from the truth.

Our health and policy planners have been trying to establish the most effective way of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects in Barbados since March 2020, when we confirmed our first cases of the disease on the island.

It was an imported illness, and so it was easy to apportion blame to visitors to the country for infecting the population. This suggestion clearly diminishes the idea that Barbadians who travelled were also responsible for COVID-19 transmissions.

While we imposed strict travel protocols and never closed our borders to travellers, our neighbours in the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, took a much more aggressive approach, shutting down all access to foreigners and nationals of that country.

The Trinidad-approach can easily be branded less than successful, if one were to examine the length of time the borders remained closed, and the rate of infections in that country.

While between April and July last year, Trinidad and Tobago achieved extremely low or zero infections in its seven-day average, by June this year, it was recording over 600 new cases.

Our neighbour has unfortunately recorded some 41, 207 cases so far and 1, 159 deaths. This disease is not to be trifled with. As we have experienced, a country can swiftly evolve from zero cases to an explosion of infections in a matter of days.

To date, we have had a total of 4, 515 cases and 48 COVID deaths.

We have been swift, yet thoughtful in our approach to handling the pandemic. There is no way that Barbados, with its high dependence on tourism, could have sealed the island off from the outside world. It would have been impractical, and as the Trinidad and Tobago scenario has demonstrated, that was no guarantee of defence from the disease’s impact.

The fact is that thousands of our citizens are dependent on a successful tourism industry. Too many of them are still languishing on the breadline, waiting for the sector to be fully restored.

The interconnectedness of tourism to many other sub-sectors of our economy is so pronounced and evident, that it should be recognized that the No. 1 job of Barbadians should be to do all in our power to ensure the revival of tourism.

Thousands of hotel rooms, guest houses, villas and apartments are waiting to be filled. What must be recognized is that Barbados’ tourism sector is mature. A significant portion of our visitors are not first-timers but return guests who plan their holidays here long in advance.

What is key is that our country is able to keep its cases of COVID-19 infections down to improve our attractiveness as a destination.

The United States, a key market for us has warned its citizens to avoid the island.

Fortunately, we remain on the “green list” for the all-important United Kingdom market. But as officials of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) have warned, the threat of losing that critical status hangs over the island.

Unless we confront and address the matter of vaccinations, and protocols to keep infections down or eliminate cases of the disease altogether, our economy will continue to sputter.

This country is not in a good place at the moment. It requires stability and confidence about the future. In the present state, businesses cannot make long term plans. It is difficult for our cultural industries practitioners to plan for Crop Over 2022.

Our farmers in the poultry sector, and food crop production, have no certainty that come December at the start of the winter tourist season, that they should ramp up production to meet demand.

Hoteliers, restaurateurs, and operators of attractions cannot be assured that their employees are fully vaccinated, and so the chances of having to shut down operations as a result of a COVID-19 cluster, looms.

A significant number of our returning guests have had a long relationship with us as a destination. Certainly, they do not want to assign a week out of their holiday to quarantining when they return home, because we have lost our “green list” status.

There is a market out there with millions of vaccinated people who have taken that step because they want to be free to travel and enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life.

It is now incumbent on us as a destination to make our island as attractive and accommodating as possible, by frontally addressing the matter vaccinations and ensure that at least those who serve on the front line are protected.

Our policy makers know what has to be done. It is for them to have the courage to take the next steps to avoid a total collapse of our economy and our livelihoods.