Vaccines present some measure of hope for tourism industry

There is great consensus amongst regional Tourism Ministers that COVID-19 vaccines offer some measure of hope, when it comes to the revitalisation of their badly hit tourism sectors.

The Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) recently presented a virtual session entitled “The COVID Lessons”, which featured tourism ministers from across the region, who discussed several pandemic-related matters. The panel consisted of Dominica’s Tourism Minister, Denise Charles; Minister of Tourism for St. Kitts and Nevis, Lindsay Grant; Tourism Minister for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Carlos James and Minister of Tourism for Anguilla, Haydn Hughes. Barbados’ Minister of Tourism, Senator Lisa Cummins, who was scheduled to be a part of the session, was not able to participate, as moderator Johnson Johnrose indicated that she had to attend an urgent meeting.

The Tourism Ministers first acknowledged the devastating blow which the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought on their tourism industries, as seen in the significant falloff of international visitor arrivals due to travel restrictions, declines in cruise tourism and a badly crippled tourism sector on account of workers not being employed. Minister of Tourism for St. Kitts and Nevis, Lindsay Grant, however received some recognition for the way in which his country has handled the pandemic to date, given that St. Kitts has only recorded 44 cases and no deaths. However, the ripple effect of COVID on regional economies was an agreed challenge, for many of the small island developing states.

The Tourism Minister however acknowledged that their governments are trying to get a significant percentage of the population inoculated to reduce the effects of COVID-19 and the Ministers have indicated that their vaccination programmes are going well, even as some receive more vaccines via the COVAX facility.

Dominica’s Tourism Minister, Denise Charles, revealed that to date, about 40 per cent of the population in Dominica has been vaccinated and vaccines are available at all health centres for citizens to access. Minister of Tourism for St. Kitts and Nevis, Lindsay Grant, said that 30 per cent of the population there has been inoculated and by April 16, the numbers will increase. He added that by July into August, they hope to reach herd immunity status, which may lead to a change in a number of COVID-19 protocols, to allow for more tourism and to assist the country. Currently, there is no appointment system and citizens can freely come and be vaccinated.

Minister of Tourism for Anguilla, Haydn Hughes, however noted that there is some “vaccine apprehension” where some citizens are concerned and this is something that needs to be addressed, if economies are to truly reopen.

“I still think there is hope in very short order. The corner is being turned, but it really depends on each of our respective populations, because there is still a lot of vaccination apprehension. I don’t know if that is the case in St. Kitts and Dominica and St. Vincent, but even though we have surpassed the 50 per cent mark, there is still a lot of vaccine hesitation and that is something that we have to get over if we want to reopen our economies. Because we can either die quickly from COVID or we can starve slowly, by having our economies closed. Pick your poison, but we have to move slowly towards reopening our economies,” Hughes stressed. (RSM)