By Staff Writer
November 10, 2020
Some Caribbean countries have already opened their border to tourism. For the most part, nearly all Caribbean countries have opened up to American tourists except for The Cayman islands, Cuba, St Barts, Curacao, and the British Virgin Islands.
In Central America on the other hand, Costa Rica is set to open before the end of October, Belize has already opened on October 1 and Panama resumed commercial flights on October 12, while Nicaragua never imposed any travel restrictions at all and Guatemala and El Salvador having been reopened in the middle of September. Columbia has opened to international flights as of November 1.
There are quite a few countries open right now. However, tourism the main economic driver for many countries in both the Caribbean and Central America regions has taken a severe hit.
According to UNWTO, the massive drop in international travel demand over the period January-June 2020 translates into a loss of 440m international arrivals and about US $460bn in export revenues from international tourism.
Countries like The Bahamas nearly 70 percent of its gross domestic product can be attributed to tourism. In fact, The Bahamas is expecting a $1.3bn deficit this fiscal year 2020/2021 in order to pad the shortfall.
Who knows when Americans will feel comfortable to travel again? No one knows! But the borders are opening.