EDITORIAL: A new reality
WITH the return of passenger flights in and out of this country, Barbados has signalled its intention to seek to find a way to exist within COVID-19 realities.
With our traditional source markets for tourists slowly reopening, Barbados stands uniquely positioned to take advantage of the lockdown fatigue which many traditional tourists have experienced.
Our reopening has come luckily within the summer period which normally provides hotels with a chance to keep their doors open for those visitors who want to take advantage of the things which we take for granted – sun, sea and sand.
Tourism which is the single most critical industry to the island’s economy has been slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic which has crippled most economies, making it necessary for governments to provide stimulus to keep businesses able to pay workers and to have the necessary capital for survival.
Government has announced long overdue efforts to renew our tourism attractions and to draw locals into these places to help cushion the fall off in critical revenue which these entities face during this period.
The return of tourists means that hotels which had closed their doors can reopen and earn critical revenue. That means workers who have been laid off can return to work and earn revenue to feed their families. Many of these workers were receiving unemployment benefits and government had moved to expand these benefits for a period until August, with sunset legislation aimed at providing revenue in these difficult times.
However, with this reopening, precautions must be taken to protect this expansion of our frontline workers. The initial front line workers included those who worked at the ports of entry, inclusive of immigration and customs officers, medical professionals and others.
Barbados, like other countries in the region, will be seeking to attract tourists as it seeks to give a much needed impetus to the critical tourism sector, but we have to look at competitive price points, since attracting the customer must be the most important aspect of reviving a sector which benefits from international good will. However, the embers of competition across the region and emerging tourist markets can now initially compete with this island, must strive our tourism planners into action. We cannot seek to extract the maximum to make up for losses over the three months of lockdown, since that will potentially drive tourists away.
With a resumption of tourists arriving, hotel workers and those subsidiary officials such as taxi drivers and vendors who providers who bring services to these tourism spots, will potentially have the risk of exposure to the virus.
Government must be applauded for its response to COVID-19, which has looked to isolate and contain the spread of the disease when it inevitably reached our shores. We successfully managed the spread and unfortunately had seven deaths, but initial suggestions of significant infection rates and the potential for deaths within our elderly populations, given the reality of rampant NCDs, made it critical that the response was robust and it was.
The restrictions, though warranted, were tough but fair. Even as those restrictions have been relaxed, the Prime Minister, to her credit has indicated that any recurrence or lack of adherence by the public to the protocols could mean in restrictions being reimposed.
This move towards the opening of passenger flights into Barbados is the latest phase in our COVID-19 response, even as the United States and the EU struggle with their cases is cause for serious attention in this new reality which we face as a country.