The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Family Island hotels and businesses yesterday said the requirement for a COVID-19 RT-PCR test remains a “hurdle” to inter-island travel from New Providence despite the 14-day quarantine's end.

Cheryl Bastian, owner/operator of Swain’s Cay Lodge in Andros, told Tribune Business she is “ecstatic” about the quarantine's elimination for locals because it brings a “level of fairness between Bahamians and tourists" given that this measure was removed for the latter over one month ago.

Ms Bastian voiced hope this will encourage more inter-island travel by Bahamians during the Christmas season, but is also “mindful” that a negative RT-PCR test must be produced within five days prior to travelling for those leaving Nassau and Freeport.

She said: “I’m mindful of security and safety in terms of dropping the requirement for the RT-PCR test for Bahamians from Nassau to the outer islands, but I think I agree with them to leave that in place for a while longer. But like, I said, it brings more of a fairness.”

Suggesting that many persons have not been complying with the quarantine, Ms Bastian said its full removal will increase airlift to the island. Andros, she added, is currently is “strained for flights”, citing the inconsistency and frequent unavailability of carriers on a daily basis.

Sherrexcia Rolle, Western Air's vice-president for operations, said of the 14-day quarantine's removal: “We do believe that, naturally, there may be an increase in domestic travel during the holiday season. Many of our frequent passengers have had to sacrifice and delay the usual Family Island visits for most of the year, but we believe they will be looking forward to visiting for Christmas.

"Travel will continue to be safe with the co-operation of the travelling public adhering to the mandatory use of face masks and standard safety and health protocols, as well as government travel requirements. Western Air has put in place additional flight times to allow for more travel flexibility throughout the season.”

Nathaniel Gibbs, Southern Air's chief executive, said the quarantine's removal will have a “positive impact” on flights going to the Family Islands, describing this as a “plus".

Matthew Brear, general manager of Long Island's Cape Santa Maria resort, said the quarantine end will not affect him because he does not rely on inter-island travel for guests. He added: “There is still the hurdle of the RT-PCR test. As far as I know, the quarantine was never the only hurdle.”

Jeff Birch, Small Hope Bay Lodge's general manager, backed Mr Brear in saying: “I think that the quarantine was a good idea. From our perspective, as Small Hope Bay Lodge specifically, not speaking for the hotel industry in general, it didn't really have much of an effect because as a compliant resort we basically were able to satisfy our customers’ needs as part of the resort.

"I think if I was a rooming house or a small motel that had rooms only, and I had to go out and get food, that might have been different. So I think from the perspective of Small Hope Bay Lodge it is a small, contained, all-inclusive type of resort, so it didn't really affect us that much.”

Mr Birch added: “As far as the tourists were concerned, you were quarantining in place. Now, the Ministry of Tourism used a lot of terms like vacation in place and things like that, but what happened is that you could leave any time in that quarantine period.

"So in other words, you weren't actually quarantining for 14 days; you were quarantining for your vacation. If your vacation was eight days, you left after eight days.”

Mr Birch said from his perspective the quarantine did not make much of a difference from a “quantitative perspective” but, rather, from a “perception perspective” for visitors.

Ned Mulford, owner of Cat Island's Pigeon Cay Beach Club, said of the quarantine's end: “They had to remove it. However, we won’t have a Christmas because there is no vaccine for anybody to take yet. Nobody is travelling; we have zero requests for Christmas.

"People are still afraid to travel, they just don’t want to deal with it right now. For Cat Island, I believe people should be able to move around once they have been tested and have proven to be clean."

Mr Mulford added that on-island testing needed to be strengthened on Cat Island due to the limited medical facilities as well as the lack of test kits.