BHTA sticking to proposed protocols

The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) has not moved away from its recently recommended vaccination and testing protocols, for persons employed in the tourism sector.

Back in July, Geoffrey Roach, Chairman of  the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) noted that the BHTA would continue to strongly encourage all employees in the industry to get vaccinated. Further, following discussions with its membership, the Association said it would be lobbying Government for unvaccinated tourism employees and those that are not fully vaccinated or who will not disclose their vaccination status, to be required to be tested weekly for COVID-19.

During the BHTA’s Quarterly Media Update yesterday, Roach emphasized the need to stick to these proposed protocols, given the need to resuscitate the tourism industry, given the present COVID-19 pandemic.

“We still maintain that given the nature of this virus, it is probably critical to look at categories of workers and the need for them to be vaccinated and or tested, because when you consider it and I’ve heard it said by the CMO (Chief Medical Officer) as well, that you probably need to look at healthcare and the hospitality industry etc. and treat to those, with specific emphasis on the need for vaccination and /or testing and we support that” Roach remarked.

“A lot of our teams work in close proximity to persons who are travelling and one of the questions we’ve been getting from travellers and we’ve had this from a lot of our accommodation members, is that persons are asking if the teams are vaccinated. Now we’ve gone to the extent of putting protocols in place, that in effect said that persons who are vaccinated, if you come to Barbados, there is a privilege in terms of being not confined for a longer period of time; because you are vaccinated, we see you as a low risk, but then you are asking these visitors to come and enjoy their vacation, to be served by persons who are not vaccinated and some visitors have not been comfortable with that” Roach further explained.

The BHTA he said, has even had reports of persons opting to travel elsewhere where workers are  fully vaccinated and hence the need to have a position on the matter.

“The truth is that we need to get this industry back up and running quickly. As we all know, tourism is the main driver of our economy, with 40 per cent contribution to GDP. How long can we as a nation afford for tourism to be on its heels? We really can’t. So our position is that yes, we still maintain that” Roach stressed, even as he lauded government for its efforts to secure more vaccines for its citizens.

BHTA CEO Rudy Grant meanwhile noted that on average, the BHTA is seeing rates at around 35 per cent, in terms of the employees that are fully vaccinated or have indicated that they would want to become vaccinated and have taken the first jab.

“Based on the information that we have, there are those properties that have vaccination rates at 70, 80 and even 90 per cent and that has come about in many of those cases with constant dialogue between the management and the staff and engaging in significant education. And one of the things that is obvious with respect to this pandemic environment, is that there's a lot of concern and a lot of motion attached, and the constant dialogue really has assisted those companies that have a significant percentage of workers being unvaccinated. Therefore, the BHTA, in addition to the position stated in the press statement, would have also referenced in that statement the issue with respect to education, and collaboration with the Barbados Workers Union, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Labour, in order to sensitize workers more to the vaccination and the testing element” Grant said. (RSM)