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UK Amber Alert Catspradles Tourist Sector

This week the UK relaxed overseas travel, however, based on a traffic light classification it means UK travellers to Barbados- a country classified AMBER- will have to quarantine for 10 days on return. Based on a BU source hotels and apartments in Barbados have started to receive cancellations. Arrivals from countries on the amber list…

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UK travel light system explained

This week the UK relaxed overseas travel, however, based on a traffic light classification it means UK travellers to Barbados- a country classified AMBER- will have to quarantine for 10 days on return. Based on a BU source hotels and apartments in Barbados have started to receive cancellations.

Arrivals from countries on the amber list will need to quarantine at home for 10 days, in addition to forking out for tests before and after their trip. You should not travel there for leisure purposes.

Traffic light system: red, amber and green list countries – where can I go on holiday abroad?

The Barbados government front loaded its economic recovery strategy by expending significant resources to keep the local tourism industry afloat. The AMBER classification must be accepted for what it is, a body blow. Unless Prime Minister Mia Mottley can do a Houdini tourist traffic for the summer from our most profitable market just went south.

This event now unfolding must cause a critique of the COVID 19 immunization policy. Has the time come for the government through the Chief Medical Officer to authorize private medical facilities to deliver COVID 19 vaccinations? Unless were are able to achieve 70/80% coverage that defines herd immunity, we will not be able to refloat the tourism boat in the near term.

#lisacummins

#drkennethgeorge

221 responses to “UK Amber Alert Catspradles Tourist Sector”

  1. roverp1 Avatar
    roverp1

    As expected no real answers to my questions on tourism. I have more questions. What are we doing to export intangible exports like services and ideas online? What small light exportable items are on our radar for export? What is wrong with us as a country that we continue to stuck in the box?

  2. David Avatar
    David

    The government and private sector are happy with managing the retail and wholesale sectors because it employs thousands. We have allowed external players to own these two sectors. Our politicians are lazy in thought and happy to go with the popular sea sun sand concept and to satisfy being captive markets for those shifting money offshore although this is changing. Decades of operating in this mode with an education system which supports it mean becoming competitive in the global market is tantamount to turning a cargo ship on a dime.

  3. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “What is wrong with us as a country that we continue to stuck in the box?”

    in a nutshell:
    your leaders are corrupt
    lack basic intelligence
    lack ethics
    lack morals
    are anti-Black
    are anti-African
    are anti-creative
    are anti-Black wealth
    are anti-Black empowerment
    are anti-Black sovereign
    are pro-racist
    are pro-apartheid
    are pro-white agendas

    have you heard them talking about removing the colonial slave system that they did not create, that previously destroyed their ancestors and by extension 3 generations of recent survivors…which they oversaw….not one word about removing that damaging system, but they are going republic keeping the same toxic system in place..

    …they have created NOTHING in 54 YEARS…so there you have it…

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Tourism, airline execs upbeat on Caribbean tourism rebound: https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/24/tourism-airline-execs-upbeat-on-caribbean-tourism-rebound/

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” It is alleged that we forked out approximately US $375,000 (BDS$750,000) for the tag line “Little Island, Big Barbados”.

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/24/351735/

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Barbados from page 32.


    Imagining a Post Covid 19 Recovery – IDB Quarterly BulletinDownload

  8. David Avatar
    David

    Good timing, the news from MoH.

    Health Minister says Barbados has achieved desired COVID positivity rate: https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/24/health-minister-says-barbados-has-achieved-desired-covid-positivity-rate/

  9. John2 Avatar
    John2

    From CNN

    TSA reported this weekend travel to be 10% below that of 2019

    Xxxxxxx

    And the world not opened up fully yet

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @John2

    Many have not questioned there is pent up demand for travel. The thrust of the debate is how do we wean from being 40 plus % GDP dependent on tourism given its fickle composition.

  11. John2 Avatar
    John2

    I wasn’t even thinking about the pent up demand factor. I Was just passing on info on how far USA is back from the lows

    That was an official number.. from the first flights ban , from time to time, I used to give a little update on how thing are at ATL where I pass through approximately weekly

    I think you meant 20%. Not 40% if not the you woul have to explain how you arrived at 49 if you care to

  12. John2 Avatar
    John2

    How to reduce the tourism gdp rate ?

    Find oil like Guyana.

    Most things we can do will de fickle and influence by external / climate factors

    This is not sayin not to grow the other industries / diversify more . Everything can play it own part

  13. David Avatar
    David

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CPZKN6qL29E/

  14. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David May 27, 2021 6:53 PM

    An excellent opportunity for Barbados to up its brand of tourism.

    The Miller has been arguing for the longest time for Barbados to up its tourism game and turn itself into a little Amsterdam of the Eastern Caribbean.

    But it has to either get rid of its stupid backward laws regarding marijuana or for the law enforcement robots to turn a blind eye (as they do to prostitution) for the sake of the country’s economic survival.

  15. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ John 2 May 24, 2021 7:45 PM
    “How to reduce the tourism gdp rate ?

    Find oil like Guyana.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Ye ole fool, stop living in the past of the 1970’s!

    The world has evolved and is advancing its awareness of the environment and the human impact on it as a direct result of the burning of fossil-based fuels.

    Oil has no future a rapidly warming world.

    Just check out what is happening to the Shell Oil Company; one of the planet’s biggest producers, distributors and retailers of the hydrocarbon poisons to humanity.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    The blogmaster is on the fence with decriminalizing cannabis, we have not done well as a country on executing anything.

  17. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    They can’t find anything to make diversify only a catch phrase, to use even the word one has to PUT IN THE WORK…and ya done know how lazy new negros are…

    can’t say am sorry to see that everyone now knows them for what they truly are, the big front and façade has fallen away and showing the REAL them and dem and them.

    why would anyone continue to trust any of them to manage a country, a tiny island, when the only thing they are capable of executing is bribery and corruption.

  18. David Avatar
    David

    Barbados set to benefit from holiday and investor traffic: https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/29/industry-expert-predicts-barbados-set-to-benefit-from-holiday-and-investor-traffic/

  19. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Followed the link above and ran into this.
    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/05/29/brawl-video-prompts-importance-of-new-school-safety-app/

    No comment other than it made me uncomfortable… 1984???

  20. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    Quote of the day:

    “There is no coral around Barbados currently defined as very good. We have gone from good to very poor, but there was no area that was very good. And therefore, this tells us that there is a necessity to start managing this space,” the Minister( Kirk Humphrey) pointed out. (Barbados Today?

  21. David Avatar
    David

    Interesting development if we go with the customer is always right approach.

    Vaccine dilemma
    BHTA wants clarity as some workers refusing jab
    by GERCINE CARTER
    gercinecarter@nationnews.com
    SOME WORKERS in the tourism industry are refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine while potential visitors are insisting on staying only in accommodations where all staff are vaccinated.
    The issue was highlighted by members of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) who pressed Minister of Labour Colin Jordan yesterday to organise a discussion on the matter with all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Tourism.
    Speaking during the BHTA’s annual general meeting held virtually, chief executive officer of Terra Caribbean, Andrew Mallalieu and other representatives of the villa industry reported clients were expressing interest in staying only in villas where all staff had been vaccinated.
    Concerns
    Raising similar concerns, group general manager of Ocean Hotels, Patricia Affonso-Dass, asked Jordan to state Government’s position on the matter as she disclosed her hotel was considering requiring employees who refused to be vaccinated, to take the COVID-19 test at their own expense.
    “How do businesses deal with those team members who refuse the vaccine and how, if they are refusing the vaccine, do we provide an environment where we can say to other team members that they are safe and to guests that they are safe, in a manner that does not end up costing the business for someone exercising their personal right to refuse?” Affonso-Dass asked.
    In response, Jordan said Government had “no definitive position” on the issue and suggested a range of considerations that could be applied to the workers’ refusal to take the vaccine.
    “I strongly believe that the vaccine needs to be taken . . . but I would caution employers on the steps you take in insisting on vaccination,” the minister said, while reminding the employers that “nationally, vaccination is not compulsory”.
    However, after being pressed by the BHTA members for answers, Jordan said: “We need to work through it and have a discussion.”
    Meanwhile, BHTA chairman
    Jeffrey Roach told the membership the organisation had already taken steps to engage stakeholders on the vaccination problem “as one of the measures to assist in a speedy recovery of the industry”.
    He said a meeting was “sought recently” with the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Labour and the Barbados Workers’ Union “to press discussions on the need to improve the vaccination rate across the industry, as well as to discuss the issue of testing of team members”.
    The issue of tourism workers and vaccinations came to light this week with the revelation that management of Coral Reef Resort in Porters, St James, had offered staff members the chance to win $500 for taking the vaccine, with a grand prize “raffle” draw scheduled for July 5.
    In yesterday’s MIDWEEK NATION, Jordan said it was not illegal for employers to offer incentives for their workers to take the vaccine, but cautioned: “An employer will also need to be careful not to pressure a worker into doing something that is not required by law.”
    Barbados Workers’ Union deputy general secretary, Dwaine Paul, said as long as the employees had the freedom of choice and the right not to participate without intimidation or reprisal, then theoretically there was nothing wrong with the offer.
    Acting general secretary of the National Union of Public Workers, Wayne Walrond, agreed, but head of Unity Workers Union, Senator Caswell Franklyn, advised workers to steer clear of the “raffle”.
    However, Walrond warned: “If someone says if you don’t get vaccinated you can’t work here, that is an outright threat to your job in terms of your constitutional rights.”

    Source: Nation News

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