The Bahamas government says the tourism industry is showing signs of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, having issued nearly 300,000 Bahamas Travel Health Visas to visitors seeking entry over the first five months of this year. Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar told Parliament that the statistics show that the Family Islands, or outer islands, are bouncing back even faster than … [Read more...]
Barbados: Government announces travel bubble for Caribbean countries
The government of Barbados will introduce a travel bubble for specific countries in the Caribbean with a low incidence of COVID-19 cases, which takes place on 30 June. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced during a speech to update the country on the COVID-19 situation that ‘persons fully vaccinated with a negative PCR test comintg from Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Anguilla, … [Read more...]
The Caribbean Conundrum: United by Tourists, Divided by Covid
The pandemic struck these islands unequally. What does this mean for tourism, a major economic driver for the entire region? The answer is unique, just like the islands. On the glassy blue waters surrounding the U.S. Virgin Islands, catamarans and pleasure yachts have packed the shoreline for the past year — a scene so busy and crowded, it’s unimaginable, even before the … [Read more...]
Caribbean gov’ts face dilemma over vaccinated visitors
Elysa Leonard, 54, a scuba diver from Virginia in the United States, has not travelled in over a year. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down global economies last year – with travel and tourism among the worst hit – Leonard was preparing to fly to the Caribbean to engage in coral restoration in Bonaire with the charity Aquarium Divers for Corals. Now, having had her first shot of the Moderna … [Read more...]
In Search of a Vaccine, Some Tourists Find Luck in the Caribbean
Roughly 3 percent of vaccines in the U.S. Virgin Islands have gone to tourists, the governor said this week. “Nowhere else in the U.S. can you actually just walk in and get the vaccine,” he said. When Lydia Todman booked a trip to St. Croix with her husband earlier this month, she was hoping only for a relaxing getaway. But when she arrived, she learned she could also get the Covid-19 … [Read more...]