Tourism, ‘possibly back by September’, eyes C’bean, Canada

Barbados could possibly be looking to reopen its tourism industry by September, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said today, but cautioned that it won’t be at the sacrifice of public health.

She also revealed that while intra-regional travel might be the main focus initially, Canada was being seen as a target market for Barbados.

She said that while tourism could be up and running within the next two to three months, it will be done with the strictest of protocols being enforced.

Mottley, who is also chairman of CARICOM, said that based on discussions with fellow leaders they were determined to reopen their borders only when it was safe to do so.

“We have all agreed first and foremost that we want to do this safely. There may be one or two who may decide to go a little earlier than the others. I’m not sure that there is a lot of merit in being the first in this one. I prefer to have the merit in being the safest and to that extent, therefore, we are being very surefooted about it,” Mottley said this evening during a press conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

“It’s not that we are being patient but I’d like to believe that we are being careful and safe.”

The Prime Minister said that with the UK and particularly the US still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada was an ideal source market right now.

But she admitted that the tourism industry would not rebound right away as there were still several COVID-19 concerns plaguing the industry.

Mottley said: “I think inter-regional travel is probably the easiest to start, but having said that, you are going to find Canada may well be the country of the traditional countries that we have that may well be the safest for us to open up because the risk is considerably less as compared to the US and the UK at the moment.

“The other problem is that these countries have also put quarantines just like us so once you start to see the quarantines moving then that will be the first sign of it. In some instances, we recognize that long-stay visitors in the initial stages will not mind the quarantine provisions, even if it is self quarantining at home, but others who are coming for five days it doesn’t make sense for them and equally, if they have to go back to the UK they will have to go back into another quarantine so it doesn’t make sense for them either.

“So tourism for the next two to three months it may open up, but it is going to be not in full throttle largely because we have to coordinate at the governmental level what are the quarantine arrangements and we hope by then to get more rapid tests because rapid tests in my view is what will open up air travel fully again.”

She said Government continued to be in regular discussions with airlines and cruise ships regarding the safety protocols which will be enforced when travel resumes.
Mottley reiterated that there were still some kinks to be worked out.

She said: “We’ve been having conversations with the airlines, we’ve been having conversations with cruise liners, but we accept that we have to have protocols and the airlines have rolled out to us what they are going to do to sanitize the planes and how clean it’s going to be and it’s wonderful.
“At the end of the day, we are looking at testing… and even if we want to get intra-regional travel going, we are going to have to agree, for example, that there is no sense in testing on both sides of a flight.”

She pointed out that governments in the region had the same public health protocols and that Barbados was being supported by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).