EDITOR, The Tribune.
I am a longtime visitor to Nassau from Ontario, Canada. I first came when I was a child over 55 years ago to visit my Bahamian grandparents. Now I have been bringing my wife and two children. Every visit has been enjoyable not only seeing family but touring around the visitor spots, beaches and restaurants.
We normally come for a month in August before the children return to school. However this year we could not come because The Bahamas has ceased to be a visitor friendly destination. I read in your edition today that The Prime Minister wants to reopen fully by October. But who would ever want to visit with the current requirements?
I do not think the Tourism Ministry has given much thought as to how the difficult conditions to enter can be completed. People who would travel have just been coming out of months of restrictions themselves. They want to be free of these burdens and go around normally.
They do not want to be in a quarantine and then those, like ourselves staying over 14 days, be forced to pay expensive further COVID-19 tests.
For four people that could be $1000 Bahamian or $1400 Canadian. Was any thought given to how persons in Canada or elsewhere could complete all the requirements to get your new Health Visa and be on the ground in Nassau in five days? It seems unbelievable. It is difficult and time consuming for Canadians to even find a health clinic which will give healthy persons a COVID-19 test. How much research was done?
Our local travel agent says that prospective visitors at their large office are being steered away from The Bahamas to other destinations where the requirements are a lot less restrictive.
Most people cannot be bothered and do not have time to proceed with a Bahamas vacation. It is just too much of a hassle. No wonder your hotels and resorts are empty and Air Canada has cancelled nearly all of their flights.
How can The Bahamas afford to destroy the tourism sector as it is the lifeblood of the nation?
We feel very badly that we cannot return to Nassau at this time and sincerely hope that the government will change the rules quickly, especially for Canadians and other overseas people from countries where the pandemic has been contained and there are very few cases. Who would travel anyway if they were ill? It is essential to make changes quickly as people are now booking winter and spring vacations.
DAVID JOHNSON
Newmarket, Ontario,
Canada,
September 17, 2020.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 1 month ago
Um. You have to quarantine for 14 days going to Canada. I know this, my father just got out of quarantine in Halifax on Saturday. This guy is either clueless or just a hypocrite...
This letter seems almost identical to the one from that Cooper guy in the UK.
Are the Russians targeting us in their US meddling effort?
Weird...
joeblow 4 years, 1 month ago
This guy writes like a self absorbed child who cannot have their way and does not grasp the risks associated with a particular course of action during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC that is killing people!!
Of course the government could have been smarter in decision making, but my expectations of them are not very high!
ColumbusPillow 4 years, 1 month ago
Joeblow you miss the point! All prospective Canadian tourists WANT TO COME TO THE BAHAMAS but they find it too difficult to meet the 5 day rule because Canada does not have an effective COVID19 testing capacity to enable people to get tested, send report to the Ministry and get permission to enter in 5 days! The 5 day rule is too high a barrier and needs to be LOWERED. There is also the news that the present PCR test method is far too sensitive and results in many false positive results, both in Canada and in the Bahamas, further cutting the number of tourists.
joeblow 4 years, 1 month ago
... none of us can really do what we want at this time, people are dying. We just have to accept the realities of the day for what they are. The level of testing and transparency concerning testing here is far below what is acceptable. Community spread cannot be accurately quantified and so it is possible that those who are unable to travel here may have just saved their lives!
When things get back to normal we can all travel as much as we want!
themessenger 4 years, 1 month ago
Man, you people crack me up. Couple weeks ago everyone was tearing the government and Minnis a new asshole for exactly these same restrictions. Now the criticism coming from an outside, read foreigner, source we closing ranks. The same thing happens, closing ranks, in our courts where a black man on trial for strangling white tourist women on Paradise island is acquitted of murder by a local jury and remanded to Sandilands instead of HM Prison even though there was DNA evidence and he was found in possession of some of their belongings or of the jet ski operator who killed the English child on the beach with his machine and there were no consequences. Our crabs tearing one another down daily but let an outsider raise their voice, well das a crab of a different color.
jamaicaproud 4 years, 1 month ago
This man is a mad man. So called 3rd world country must open up so he can spread Coro, while natives are imprisoned at home.
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