‘Subdued’ tourism recovery likely

The full recovery of the tourism sector locally and internationally depends heavily on the creation of a vaccine to fight the novel coronavirus.

That’s the view of Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Kerrie Symmonds. Clarifying earlier reports in the press about a year-end rebound for the local sector, he told media personnel that tourism will not fully recover by then, but he suggested there is likely to be “subdued recovery”, and it will hopefully be more robust in the latter part of the year.

“I don’t think anybody in the world could expect that we can recover until we have a vaccine, and quite frankly that is what we need. The reality is, until there is a vaccine, we all have to try to work together to try to resolve these challenges as best we can,” he stated.

He explained that until a vaccine is created and put to use, the focus will be on promoting different approaches for different markets, taking into consideration that our various source markets have had various levels of impact. With that in mind, he again suggested that focus could be placed on the local villa sector to attract visitors.

“That is one easy way because it is a high end sector, people are coming to a house that they own and they are probably going to be here for a longer period of time, and therefore telling them [to] quarantine for 14 days is not a big deal. They don’t rely on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic to get here because they are flying in on private jets,” he said.

The tourism minister stated that with the United States predicted to have a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths next month, it is unrealistic to think of reopening borders as in the past, and focus must be placed on attracting business from locals and intraregional travel. He added that while the country has to be guarded in some markets, it has opportunities in other markets, even at home, on which it can capitalise.

“...We must resuscitate the business of this industry by working, first of all, among ourselves as Barbadians, and understanding that the attractions in this country are run by Barbadians. They are staffed by Barbadians. The families who are on the breadline now are Barbadian. Those people who have been laid off are Barbadian. And to the extent that it becomes possible, when once all of the period of stay in place and shelter and lockdown is lifted, we then have as a Barbadian people to start to spend a little bit of our time, and where possible our money, with those attractions so that they don’t all sink and disappear,” he stated.

The next phase, he said, is to look to the region. In fact, he said the countries in the region must rely on each other to help boost the tourism industry.

“So things like a staycation when…we are able once again to do that type of thing, that becomes a first plank. Things like regional travel and experiencing our region in a way that perhaps we never sufficiently did before, that becomes the second plank. I think then it gives us enough time in order to deal with some of what’s happening internationally,” he stated.
(JRT)