By: Staff Writer
June 24, 2022
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) president said that outgoing testing found that the COVID-19 positivity rate was less than one percent and is pleased the US decided to drop its inbound testing requirements.
Nicola Madden-Greig, told Caribbean Magazine Plus in an emailed response to questions about the US dropping the inbound COVID-19 testing requirements that the CHTA is “very pleased with the decision by the U.S. to remove the inbound testing requirement as this is one less barrier for international travellers.”
She also said: “Over the period the testing requirement was in place, many Caribbean destinations monitored outgoing testing and found the positivity rate to be extremely low; in fact it was less than 1 percent.”
The United States last week Friday rescinded a 17-month-old requirement that people arriving in the country by air test negative for COVID-19, a move that follows intense lobbying by airlines and the travel industry.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky issued a four-page order lifting the mandate, effective at 12:01 a.m. ET (0400 GMT) Sunday, saying it is “not currently necessary.”
Ms Madden-Greig also said: “The cost of having to test to come to the destination and to test again to return to the U.S. created a financial strain, especially on families and groups. With the summer season upon us, which is peak for family travel, we anticipate a robust return to strong numbers out of the U.S. which is the main market for many Caribbean destinations. Additionally, we anticipate this will also facilitate the growth of MICE groups as well.
“We would go even as far to say that we anticipate summer arrivals to be close to our record 2019 performance, with some jurisdictions exceeding 2019 arrivals. The Caribbean, through strong public-private partnerships, did an excellent job in managing this pandemic and was proactive in establishing protocols, implementing training and other guidelines in the travel and tourism industry to mitigate against many of the impacts.
“According to the recently released World Travel and Tourism Council Caribbean Tourism Economic Impact Report, in 2021 the Caribbean Travel & Tourism sector experienced the second-fastest recovery of all regions, with its contribution to GDP growing by 36.6 percent.
“Despite the vagaries around the global economic outlook this year, CHTA anticipates continued recovery as the Caribbean is one of the most attractive nearshore destinations that North American visitors can enjoy.”
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed the Caribbean’s Travel & Tourism sector could create 1.34 million jobs over the next 10 years, if governments and the private sector enhance intra-regional cooperation and become a single voice.
At its Sustainable and Investment Summit in Puerto Rico, WTTC is launching a new publication looking at the future growth of the region. The report addresses a number of key challenges that the islands face and sets clear recommendations to maximize the growth potential of the Caribbean.
The Caribbean is hugely reliant on Travel & Tourism and international visitors. In 2019, Travel & Tourism sector’s contribution to the region’s GDP was 13.9 percent (US$ 61.5bn), falling to just 7.1 percent (US$28.8bn) in 2020, which represented a staggering 53.2 percent loss.
The sector also supported more than 2.7m jobs across the region, before experiencing a staggering 25.8 percent, falling to 2.1m in 2020, suffering a higher drop than the global average.
According to the latest report, published today in Puerto Rico, the sector’s contribution to GDP could grow at an average rate of 6.7 percent annually over the next decade, outstripping the region’s overall economy growth.
The Caribbean Travel & Tourism’s contribution to the region’s GDP could reach more than US$100bn by 2032.