TORONTO — As winter creeps in, many people are daydreaming about vacations, especially as we enter the second winter of the pandemic. The Caribbean is usually a popular destination, but different islands have different rules. Brandon sat down with Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Barlett to discuss the country’s do’s and dont’s.
The tourism industry was hit hard by COVID-19. Bartlett says that Jamaica had a decrease of around two-million visitors during the pandemic. That cost approximately $2.7 million in revenue, and 130,000 jobs.
The Minister says that in the last 12 months the industry has begun to recover, creating 60,000 jobs and generating almost 1.7 billion USD from tourism.
“There is one point I want to bring home, Jamaica never closed our borders after we opened in June of last year, and that’s significant because I think Jamaica is one of the few countries that never closed after we opened COVID,” Bartlett told The Brandon Gonez Show.
Travelers are able to head down to Jamaica whether they’re vaccinated or not. But there is a twist. They must have a negative PCR or antigen test 72 hours before you arrive in Jamaica.
In the area of the island that has 85% of all of the tourism attractions, the Minister says they’ve been working to vaccinate hospitality staff. They’ve also implemented COVID-19 cleaning protocols in hotels and other hotspots to control the spread of the virus.
Officials then visited establishments to ensure they were following the rules and regulations.
“And if you weren’t COVID compliant, you could not received a guest,” Bartlett said.
The cruise ship industry is also making a recovery. Bartlett says the Jamaican government is in negotiations with several countries. Tourists can expect over a hundred cruises from lines including Disney and Royal Carribean.
The vaccine roll out in Jamaica is well underway, with around 50% of tourism and hospitality staff fully vaccinated. Bartlett says that it has not been an easy road getting the population of Jamaica vaccinated.
“Small countries like Jamaica have had problems getting the vaccine, and there is no question about it the bigger countries have it cornered the vaccine of the world,” Bartlett explained.
Canada is among the countries that have gifted vaccines to Jamaica, but that has not been without issues, either. The classification of the AstraZeneca vaccine is one of those problems.
“The very countries that give you the gift are saying they don’t recognize your double vaccinated as being vaccinated,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett told Brandon that fans of carnival should be dusting off their costumes and getting their sequins together. The Minister of Tourism says they’re hopeful that they will be able to welcome visitors back to party next summer.
