More Caribbean Islands preparing for post Covid-19 travel

[ilikeanswers]

This article goes talks about what Antigua and Grenada are doing to open up travel:

 

Protocols from an island that opened early to tourism

[evandbob]

Post COVID?????

 

Are we even close to that yet??????

 

But thanks for the isles update.

[ilikeanswers]

14 minutes ago, evandbob said:

Post COVID?????

 

Are we even close to that yet??????

 

But thanks for the isles update.

 

Yes I agree it is not that accurate but that seems to be what everyone is calling it😂

[sanger727]

I wouldn't travel under these conditions. You book a 1 week stay at a nice hotel and suddenly you have a positive test and on the hook for paying for a second week plus being stuck in your room the entire vacation. No thanks. I'm not the market to travel internationally right now but if I did it would only to be a location that allowed me to get a covid test before I left and bring that with me.

[ilikeanswers]

Here is an article detailing Jamaica's new protocols:

 

Jamaica Takes First Step on Path to Post-COVID Tourism

[BSR]

Thanks for the articles. 

[Hlitner]

You might have noted that the article does not mention cruise ships or cruising!   The Caribbean islands desperately need to open up to tourism in order to fill their hotels/resorts, restaurants, etc.  But opening up to cruise ship day tripper tourists is another matter.

 

Hank

[evandbob]

36 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

You might have noted that the article does not mention cruise ships or cruising!   The Caribbean islands desperately need to open up to tourism in order to fill their hotels/resorts, restaurants, etc.  But opening up to cruise ship day tripper tourists is another matter.

 

Hank

 

While tourism of all kinds plays a key role in Caribbean Isles economies, we should remember that it averages 15%

of their GDP, and that cruising by itself is a much smaller piece of that pie.

 

It may take a while, but if cruising does not return to the isles, they can find a substitute, perhaps room for cloud storage like Curacao did.  Cruisers may find themselves surprised they are not essential to the islands' economic health.

[ilikeanswers]

57 minutes ago, evandbob said:

While tourism of all kinds plays a key role in Caribbean Isles economies, we should remember that it averages 15%

of their GDP, and that cruising by itself is a much smaller piece of that pie.

 

It may take a while, but if cruising does not return to the isles, they can find a substitute, perhaps room for cloud storage like Curacao did.  Cruisers may find themselves surprised they are not essential to the islands' economic health.

 

It seems Caribbean Islands are looking to renegotiate their contracts. So who knows how long that will take:

 

Cruise ships and coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, evandbob said:

 

While tourism of all kinds plays a key role in Caribbean Isles economies, we should remember that it averages 15%

of their GDP, and that cruising by itself is a much smaller piece of that pie.

 

It may take a while, but if cruising does not return to the isles, they can find a substitute, perhaps room for cloud storage like Curacao did.  Cruisers may find themselves surprised they are not essential to the islands' economic health.

We completely agree.  As much as I love cruising (been doing it for over forty years) I also am aware of the anti-cruising sentiment among many folks and the downside of cruising.  To some degree, the cruise industry has done a lot of harm to the Caribbean islands.  St Thomas has become a lousy place for a vacation...having been ruined by too many cruisers.  Charlotte Amalie used to be a charming village with lots of different kinds of cute shops but has now been transformed into a traffic-crazed place with jewelry and electronic shops aimed at cruisers.   When we vacation on a Caribbean island we do not even consider St Thomas as an option.   When we have rented condos on St Maarten we stay far from the cruise port and avoid Phillipsburg like the plague, except on some weekends when there are no more then 1 or 2 ships in port.  Some of the best islands in the Caribbean such as Anguilla and St Barts have actively done what they can to keep cruise ships out.

 

The cruise industry has lately been leading to the ruin of several European areas and the backlash has started.  Good examples would be Venice and Dubrovnik with some other areas (such as La Spezia) not far behind.   The world has finally come to their senses and taken big steps to limit cruise ships coming to areas near Antarctica.  COVID-19 might become a convenient excuse for the anti-cruise folks to flex their muscles and permanently limit entry of cruise ships (especially large ships) to many ports.  I cannot help but think of Saul Alinsky''s rule of "Never let a good crisis go to waste."  Many politicians adhere to this creed :(.

 

Hank