By: Staff Writer
May 4, 2021
The year is not yet finished as there is “added value” in the Caribbean for travellers this year if they provide free COVID-19 testing, says leading regional travel expert.
Kelly Fontenelle-Clarke, founder of Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC) and managing director of Kelly Fontelle Marketing, in an email response to queries from Caribbean Magazine Plus said: “Selling the Caribbean has changed in the midst of COVID-19 as now travel advisors have to do more research before selling or even recommending a destination or a resort.
“Resorts and hotels must be COVID-19 certified and resorts and hotels offering RT-PCR or rapid antigen tests on property for the return trip are now items that need to be checked off before recommending or selling. These are all new to selling the Caribbean and free testing is a big added value that can be the decision maker when recommending or selling resorts in the Caribbean.
Ms Clarke also said that despite these difficulties she does not foresee irrational travel advisories against the Caribbean coming from major source markets like Canada, Europe and/or the US again right now, “Each destination will be monitored closely for COVID-19 spikes in cases and the percentage of the population that have been inoculated. The US/Canada/European countries can and will make changes as they fit to protect returning residents, they will be monitoring the health care system for each destination and monitor its capability for COVID-19 cases and the new variants as well. These are key to issuing warning or advisories for each destination.
She warned on the possibility of more travel advisories, however, “The Caribbean is one of the most tourism dependent regions and with more advisories and warnings, this can put a damper on Caribbean tourism that is finally seeing a light right now. The Caribbean is also one of the safest regions right now and thanks to travel advisors, they are doing their research and sees the advisories just as advisories and not ‘Do Not Travel’.”
Numerous Caribbean countries, including several that have recorded increasing visitor numbers since re-opening during the third quarter of 2020, were targeted in this week’s expansion of the U.S. Department of State’s “Do Not Travel” guidance covering about 80 percent of countries around the world.
In April, citing “unprecedented risk to travellers” from COVID-19, the US State Department designated Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, the French West Indies (encompassing Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy), Haiti, Honduras, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Turks and Caicos Islands as “Do Not Travel” destinations.
Canada, also in April, put out “Avoid non-essential travel,” to Barbados, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Belize, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Bonaire, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Martin, Sint Maarten, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Barthelemy, Trinidad and Tobago, The Turks and Caicos and Venezuela.
Ms Clarke also said: “More people are getting vaccinated as they do want to travel, cruises are about to return to only vaccinated travellers and people are ready to take a break. Revenge travel is a real thing and travellers are ready to explore a cleaner more sanitized vacation.
Caribbean tourism will see a ramp up by this winter, Ms Clarke said. She added: “I believe the Caribbean will have a good winter period and this will be the return of travel. With more people being vaccinated, destination weddings slowly picking up, travel is slowly rebounding, and we can see a light by the end of 2021.
She further cautioned about overly optimistic expectations for the remainder of 2021 that: “2021 will not end like the very successful 2019, however it will be better than 2020 which is very promising for Caribbean economics.
“It will take some time for visitors to feel comfortable and travel again, but the Caribbean is the safest region and it is definitely looking up. Some destinations are receiving additional airlift and this is very promising. Destinations like Saint Lucia, US Virgin Islands, Antigua, Turks and Caicos, just to name a few all have received additional airlift from new source markets for 2021, even LIAT will soon resume service opening up regional travel as well. 2021 is not finished yet and it looks promising.”
