The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Taxi Cab Union's president says The Bahamas must re-open its tourism sector "ready or not" on November 1 even though COVID-19 will remain well into 2021.

Wesley Ferguson told Tribune Business: “Ready or not we need to do something, because we can’t stay locked down indefinitely. We have to find a way. Those who have the brightest minds among us should have their heads together, not making it political, and find a way for us working in this COVID environment.

"Truth be told, and from what I gather, I anticipated when I saw Donald Trump contracted COVID-19 that if he caught the virus that means there is nowhere we can hide from it.”

Noting the difficulties associated with marketing The Bahamas amid New Providence's latest curfew and lockdown, Mr Ferguson said: “In spite of what the minister of tourism is saying it will have a negative effect. People want to get away and not be locked down. The Bahamas has a reputation for being a friendly people and a safe environment.

"Tourists that come here have relationships with people within our tourism industry. So the lockdown will not be very effective if we want to attract people to come to The Bahamas. People don’t want to come here for a lockdown. Yes, we have to be careful in this COVID environment, but at the same time we have to co-exist with this COVID-19."

Mr Ferguson added that COVID-19 virus will be present well into 2021, “and that is straight across the board. This looks like the trend in all of the Caribbean countries, and when I listened to the Prime Minister saying he will extend the unemployment benefits until the end of 2020, that gave me further indication to just simply write 2020 off.

“Barbados and Jamaica have written off 2020. We have to look at 2021 and beyond. The cruise ships won’t be back here until 2021. Airlines will come back on October 15, but to what extent they are coming with a load of people is another thing. With the cases here so high, and with us having the highest per capita in the region, we have to concentrate on getting the numbers down first and then opening up to the world.”

Muna Issa, SuperClubs Breezes managing director, asked if the country will be ready for the planned November 1 tourism re-opening, said: “On getting the virus under control, that is a question for the experts. The world is used to lockdowns and curfews, so I think the marketing plan should concentrate on which hotels are open and not those that are closed.

"A few hotels have been open since July 1 and, as far as I know, no positive cases have been contact-traced to the open hotels. As the song goes: We need to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.”

Diane McTague, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express, said: “I really hope that we have some control over the virus so that we can re-open the island. With the lockdown and curfew I think this is necessary to bring the virus under control.”

Peter Rebmann, Pearl Island’s managing partner, said: "I am not a doctor nor a virologist. All I know and see is our numbers are exploding and, as I said many times, nobody will travel to a hot spot.”