EDITOR, The Tribune.
Those of us who operate travel agencies in my part of the northeastern United States recently held a virtual conference about the reopening of more tourism after the COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Tribune has had letters from travel agents recently with which I readily agree.
Your Health Visa has to be eliminated immediately. It makes no sense at all. This topic was discussed at our conference. Sadly The Bahamas has plummeted in interest by our clients. Over the past year, despite so many complaints, your Tourism Minister has continued harsh entry rules which has effectively stopped tourism.
Our clients have a huge range of destinations in the Caribbean area to choose for a holiday. People just do not want, nor can they understand, why you are forcing so many hurdles on them just to come and have a vacation.
Rather than all the problems, expense and time taken to get a Health Visa tourists should be able to show a vaccination certificate at the airport, receive a boarding pass and be on their way. This is what happened for years with The Bahamas and helped to make it a popular destination.
From what we understand the Health Visa has become a revenue producer for the Government rather than a health matter. It has become just another tax.
When we have to explain all the formalities required to travel to The Bahamas our clients have all declined interest and are being booked to your competition.
That could likely lead to a sharp decline in return visitors. Even those of our clients who always travelled to Nassau are now looking elsewhere.
I read yesterday that your hotel workers union is unhappy that so many members are not being rehired.
Sadly this could well become permanent if you do not eliminate all the hassles involved in coming to you.
How your economy can carry on with your main economic activity curtailed is a serious concern.
Your Tourism Ministry always declared that they work with “travel partners”.
Obviously this has not happened over the past year when you designed your entry policies. We always liked booking clients to The Bahamas.
Let us hope the Visa will be gone very soon.
WILLIAM G DAVIDSON
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, USA,
July 15, 2021.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 8 months ago
There is nothing wrong with a system for entry requirements
The problem with the travel visa system is its not a system. The unfortunate thing is the cabinet doesnt recognize the difference. This is the 2nd major contract awarded to the company. As if the poor performance of the food task force site wasnt sufficient warning
JokeyJack 2 years, 8 months ago
Your letter is nice, its just the case that nobody here cares. We are soon going to change back to the PLP government over here (you know, the ones we recently threw out 35 to 4) and then you will see dynamic reverse change back to the way things were before 2017.
So right now your timing is bad. Nobody cares. Wait until after May 2022 when nobody still wont care and publish your letter again.
carltonr61 2 years, 8 months ago
The grand daughter Rock dollar scam. Customs was saddled with a similar treasury robbing baggage along with Police gov payments of everything digital new world gangster order.
carltonr61 2 years, 8 months ago
Our hinerable doctor has transformed us into a gangster paradise by monitizing Covid for family, honeysuckers and friends.
Alan1 2 years, 8 months ago
I completely agree with the letter writer. We rely on tourism for our livelihood. However,over the last year, the Minister of Tourism has done all that he can to discourage the tourism we could have had by the unworkable and cumbersome entry rules. There have been so many letters of complaint from travel agents whom we rely on to promote business as well as long term and occasional visitors. Yet none of the rules were changed to any degree. If the Visa is not abolished soon we will miss the important bookings for the winter. It is simply unbelievable that those most affected like the hotel workers union, hotel personnel and managers and local shopowners have been so silent when it is their own jobs at stake. We must face the fact that if things do not change very soon our economy could be in permanent decline.
C2B 2 years, 8 months ago
Hey Mr. Davidson; we are trying to run a scam here to benefit our friends and families. So we don't care about the broader good of the economy as long as we can enrich ourselves. Clear?
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