The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE the reopening of the country’s tourism industry, straw vendors say they do not feel optimistic the Straw Market will be able to resume operations this year given the uncertainty surrounding the cruise industry’s return to the country.

Reverend Esther Thompson, a spokeswoman for the vendors, made the comments to The Tribune yesterday as she spoke about the uncertainty being felt by workers concerning the downtown facility’s reopening.

The reopening of the country’s leading industry, she conceded, has also done little to appease workers’ fears given the fact that the bulk of their customers are cruise visitors.

“The opening of the country is no benefit to us not up to now because 90 percent of our businesses come from the cruise ship and if I read the CDC guidelines, it isn’t any hope for us right now...” said Mrs Thompson.

“I’m really saddened by what I’m hearing. I’m not at all excited. I don’t see any reason for excitement. I don’t see the industry opening soon because the CDC guidelines, they put that in place until November 2021 so that ain’t sounding good for us at all so the government has to come up with a strategy of what they’re going to do with us and people like us in the tourism industry.”

The cruise industry was ordered to halt its operations by the US Centres for Disease Control in March (CDC) via a No Sail Order in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDC has since lifted its no sail order on cruise lines. However, the industry will not cater to tourists immediately as there will be a phased approach to sailing. Under the new guidelines, cruise ships have to adhere to strict health and safety rules “including extensive testing, quarantine measures and social distancing”.

If they meet the CDC’s standards, first with crew-only test sailings, they will eventually be allowed to resume passenger excursions.

Speaking during his ministry’s press conference on Saturday, Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar touted the move as “small but big step”, adding the industry’s return to the country will be a process.

“We have been meeting with the cruise lines one on one, myself, someone in our cruise department at the Ministry of Tourism and Dr Delon Brennen (deputy chief medical officer) has been involved in that process to review their protocols,” he said.

“Obviously, the enormous stumbling block has been getting CDC approval and the CDC has actually provided a pathway to resume sailing. We’re very excited about that. It’s a small but big step. Like I said before, it’s going to be a process.”

Vendors have previously said they want the downtown facility’s reopening dates to fall in line with the cruise industry’s restart.

However, with no definitive date set for when the cruise industry will resume operations to The Bahamas, Reverend Thompson said vendors feel the chances are very slim that they will be able to return to work this year and resume operations as normal.

“They won’t be bringing any guests anytime soon because they (first) have to follow these guidelines the CDC placed. They have to get approval from the CDC to carry passengers that they have everything in place,” she continued.

“The CDC put the guidelines until November 2021 so they have to do their tests runs and stuff but they will not be bringing any guests anytime soon. D’Aguilar them know this.

“Even with them opening the country that doesn’t mean tourists are going to come... It’s not only going to be bad for us but eventually bad for everyone because they can’t keep borrowing money to pay salaries because that looks like that’s all they’re doing.”

Like most Bahamians nationwide, Rev Thompson said the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a serious financial blow to many vendors, who are now barely able to make ends meet.

“It’s rough because you know they dropped (NIB payments) to $100 and it’s worse because if we were making it on $200, how are going to make it on $100?” she said.

Yesterday,the straw vendor called on the government to meet with all the tourism stakeholders to discuss their concerns and their plans for the way forward.

“I feel like we all could come up as stakeholders if they put us around the table, we all could come up with strategies where we could make this thing work for everybody but they’re in their own mindset, only have a certain class of people they want to deal with,” she said.

“They don’t feel like they have to come down to our level which is wrong. They don’t feel like they have to come down to our level for us to help make the decisions on what’s going to happen in our industry and that’s wrong.”

Under the current COVID-19 Emergency Order, straw vendors are prohibited from operating their businesses.