DEPUTY Prime Minister Chester Cooper.
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
BEGINNING on Monday, citizens and residents of The Bahamas will no longer need a travel health visa to come home from abroad, Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper announced yesterday.
He said despite this change, testing requirements will remain in place and visitors with citizenship in other jurisdictions will still need a travel health visa to enter the country.
The move was welcomed by Health Minister Dr Michael Darville.
He told reporters following a tour of Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre that due to “so much complications” with the visa application process, the government decided to do away with the requirement for Bahamians.
Mr Cooper said revoking the requirement was a campaign promise by the Progressive Liberal Party now fulfilled.
The health visa was implemented in November 2020 and had a fee attached in order to be obtained.
“Our administration promised a review of all of the contracts associated with (The) Bahamas travel health visa,” Mr Cooper told House of Assembly members yesterday. “I am pleased to report that that review has been done and continues and renegotiations are underway with respect to all of our partners.
“Further, members would recall that the Progressive Liberal Party never felt that this Bahamas travel health visa should apply to Bahamian citizens and permanent residents who call The Bahamas home.
“It was both a financial and regulatory burden on Bahamians and we vowed to stop it. Shortly after we came to office, we assessed the programme and eliminated the fees for Bahamian citizens and residents and eliminated the visa altogether for inter-island travel.
“The visa was left in place for visitors along with the attending fees. After assessing the programme, we are pleased to announce that as of Monday, December 13, 2021, Bahamians and residents will no longer be required to obtain a health travel visa to enter their beautiful home.
“The PLP promised to end the travel health visa for Bahamians and residents that was implemented by the previous administration and we are doing just that. This administration plans to take its promises to the Bahamian people seriously.
“I want to stress further that the testing requirements will remain in place for all travellers.”
The Exuma and Ragged Island MP said there had been recent technical issues with the health visa digital platform, adding Cable Bahamas—the government’s data host—has been asked to create the proper contingency plan moving forward.
“On December 5 and again on December 6, the processing of The Bahamas tourism health visa platform experienced interruptions and delays for a short period on each day. This was reportedly due to power outages and other technical glitches at Cable Bahamas that serves as the government data host. This was most unacceptable and regrettable.
“We, therefore, apologise to the travelling public for this inconvenience. I have asked that our service providers put in place the appropriate redundancy so that this does not recur.”
The minister said while the testing protocols are under review by the Ministry of Health, tourism officials have been consulted in order to ensure a balanced approach that protects citizens and the industry.
He went on to emphasise the health visa has been a helpful tool in information gathering and marketing.
“We emphasise that the travel health travel visa will remain in place for tourists and visitors - travellers from abroad who are not Bahamians or residents of The Bahamas - for the foreseeable future.
“We believe that this provides a level of protection for the health and safety of all in The Bahamas by vetting the authenticity of documents by the travel health visa programme well in advance of travel.
“The visa has allowed us to gather key data for analysis and marketing, and the means to better communicate events that may impact travel.
“We foreshadow further, that the manual immigration landing card will be eliminated in due course. We are satisfied that once this process is also digitised, it will create a further convenience to our tourists and foreign business travellers,” Mr Cooper said.
Comments
Sickened 3 years ago
Finally some sensible policies in place for entering our country. I have seen many a disgruntled look from tourists with a bunch of kids having to fill out those ridiculous forms.
Hoda 3 years ago
Lol, really you saw tourist disgruntled about filling out a form that ask you your flight number and other trivial details? Are you familiar with American Airlines Verifly App - that is essentially is a health visa and asks you the same thing. Why are we bragging about not having to fill out a 4 line form...online...
Hoda 3 years ago
Well at least the govt knows their audience...no more health visa that took 2 minutes to fill out just a antigen test and per if your not vaccinated. So seems like nothing really has changed other than the two minute form that stressed out the nation
Alan1 3 years ago
The PLP promised to abolish the Health Visa for everyone not just residents! The Minister admits it is complicated and cumbersome. There have been so many complaints from travel agents and visitors that the Visa is preventing bookings to The Bahamas because visitors can go to nearly every other southern destination without these expensive and time consuming measures. As to the Minister saying it provides marketing information they have always received that information on the forms previously used by visitors on entering our country. The Visa is looked at as a tax to enter The Bahamas and many prospective visitors do not want or have time to be bothered going through the procedures so they book elsewhere. We are the losers which is affecting the lack of jobs because we are not getting the tourism numbers we need at this time. The Tourism officials who are advising the Minister have mismanaged the whole tourism process.
Maximilianotto 3 years ago
Excellent move! Promised - delivered. Get rid of useless entry forms. Establish buttons for comments on immigration after leaving, even PRC has this!
John 3 years ago
Meanwhile the details on the Omicron virus is that It does not cause breathing problems like the other strains. Most persons admitted for Omnicron do not require oxygen. The average stay for a patient admitted with Omnicron is 2 days compared to 8 days with the other strains. Patients are usually treated with steroids and are released shortly thereafter because when they are admitted, they have already passed the critical stage of the viral attack. And most patients who are hospitalized with Omnicron were admitted for other ailments. It was only through routine testing and treatment of the other illnesses that they were discovered to have Omnicron. It is also believed that patients who have the Omnicron and recovered will now have natural immunity to all the other strains of Covid-19. This is yet to be confirmed.
Eve 3 years ago
I had to apply for a Bahamas Health Visa for myself and my husband a few weeks ago. You need to set up an account for each person, each with a different email address. That is rough. What if you have a spouse and 4 kids. That is 6 applications. The server is buggy. I put everything in and it would not submit. The airline will not let you board without an approved application. When we got to the airport they wanted a QR code as well, something that the Bahamas Health Visa does not provide. If it had been my husband doing it, we would not be here.
DWW 3 years ago
i never had a problem clicking a few things. takes 2 min. some people just cant do anything with electronic equipment. What is truly assinine is to remove international but keep inter island visa
Eve 3 years ago
The inter island health visa has been eliminated.
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