Club Barbados first hotel to require COVID-19 jab of staff and visitors

An all-inclusive West Coast hotel is introducing mandatory vaccination for its staff and is closing the hotel to unvaccinated guests, with a senior official urging other businesses not to be afraid to make decisions to ensure their survival even if they were unpopular.

The Club Barbados Resort and Spa in St James will require all of its staff members to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, owners Elite Island Resorts announced Thursday while debate rages on the mandates issue.

It also said that from September 1, all guests 12 years and over going to any of its properties will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination upon arrival.

Larry Basham, General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of Elite Island Resorts, called on tourism industry officials to do what they could to “normalise the protocols” to encourage more people to travel to Caribbean destinations again, but said they should also make the tough decisions.

“As business owners you know your business, you know your audience, you know your customers and your suppliers better than anyone. So don’t be afraid to make the decisions that need to be made for your business, your industry and your destination to survive,” he said.

“Not every decision is going to be perfect, not every decision is going to be popular, but make the best decisions you can and get out there and keep the business running.”

He was speaking as a member of a panel in the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) Live: The Resilience series, which was held under the theme ‘Road to Recovery: Adapting to the Ever-Changing Landscape of Today’s Travel’.

Basham said the decision to require guests to be vaccinated was partly due to the need for the hotel to play its part in helping to keep Caribbean destinations open.

“The market is there and we have gone ahead and made what we know is a difficult decision to require our incoming guests to show proof of vaccination,” he said. “We know also a lot of people are going to be thrilled with this decision and a few people are probably going to be disappointed. But we really had to look at the most important thing here, and that is keeping these markets open for business.”

He added: “As you know, we are in the Caribbean. These are not large first world countries. It is not the United States, it is not the UK. These are beautiful, wonderful little Caribbean islands that have a lot of charm [and] it is why they are so popular. But what that also means is that medical resources are limited and we need to protect the limited resources on the island.

“We need to protect our hotel staff and we need to protect the industry. We felt the best way to do that and to encourage international travellers and install that confidence at the same time was to implement a COVID vaccine requirement.”

Elite Island Resorts owns nine properties across five destinations – five properties in Antigua and one each in Barbados, St Lucia, the Grenadines and Panama.

Basham said he believed the move will be “a very successful” one “in keeping things opened, functional and safe and comfortable for everybody throughout the fall and winter months”.

Insisting that requiring guests to be vaccinated was “the best way to help preserve our vital tourism industries in the island were we operate”, Basham said the company would also be requiring all workers “in all destinations, including Barbados” to take the jab.

“As a further confidence booster, I think it is important to let travellers know that it is not just them we are requiring to become vaccinated. We have already reached approximately 70 per cent vaccination with our hotel staff and we are going to be requiring 100 per cent vaccination. So that when travellers come and stay at one of our resorts they know that they, their fellow travellers and the staff serving them are fully vaccinated.

“While that may not be a perfect solution, that’s at least going to give us our best bet of keeping everybody as safe and as healthy as humanly possible during the travels.”

While Government is yet to announce its plans on whether vaccination should be mandatory for everyone or for specific industries, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) has already said it supported the option of mandatory vaccination or regular testing.

Club Barbados, which was embroiled in months of controversy after it made staff redundant at the end of September 2020, is set to reopen its doors in October.

Over the past several weeks, the company has been seeking to fill close to 40 different positions in maintenance, housekeeping, food and beverage, guest services, stewarding and the spa.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)