The Tribune

• Demand ‘surge’ sees applications double to 4k daily

• But technology must be ‘tweaked’ for the vaccinated

• ‘14-day from travel’ limit imposed as ‘frustration’ rises

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday revealed it is “all hands on deck” to prevent “a surge” in visitor demand from “overwhelming” the Bahamas’ health travel visa website and deterring potential tourists.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business the website has to be “tweaked” after daily applications doubled to hit 4,000 following The Bahamas’ decision to eliminate border COVID-19 testing for fully vaccinated travellers.

Disclosing that this relaxation has effectively extended the vacation booking window, he explained that fully vaccinated travellers are seeking to obtain their approved health visa now for visits during the July to October period.

This contrasts sharply with the previous regime, as the requirement for all visitors to obtain a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within five days of arriving in The Bahamas significantly narrowed the booking window to a matter of days.

Mr D’Aguilar said this switch, coupled with the demand increase, meant the government has had to “limit applications to within 14 days’ of travel” so that the system can better “digest” and process all the submissions it is receiving.

Admitting that the rapidly-evolving travel market changes were “greater than anticipated”, as increasing numbers of Americans become fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Mr D’Aguilar added that he and the Ministry of Tourism were also mindful of the need not to “unnecessarily frustrate” potential visitors and thus undermine The Bahamas’ tourism rebound.

“Only ten days into this new regime, we’re definitely getting a surge on our health travel visa site, but I think it is more because it was previously restricted to persons applying within five days of travel,” he told this newspaper. 

“Now, by opening it up to vaccinated travellers, there’s been a surge in applications because people are saying they want to travel in July, they want to travel in August, but they want to apply now. We’re probably doing 3,000-4,000 applications a day, but not all for travel immediately.”

Revealing that the health travel visa website had been processing around 2,000 applications daily prior to May 1, which was when the government eliminated the PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers, Mr D’Aguilar conceded: “We’re getting overwhelmed by persons applying for a vacation beyond the five days.

“There is some tweaking that we need to do. I guess we all thought that persons, when they were ready to travel, would upload their applications within five days of travel, not realising there would be a fairly large surge of people wanting to travel in June, July, August and September.

“To ensure the system does not get overwhelmed, we’re having to limit it to within 14 days of travel. We have to tweak our technology to allow for greater demand and applications for travel in July, while maintaining a response within 24 hours. It’s now overloading our phone lines,” the minister told Tribune Business.

“We now have to tweak it so that vaccinated persons get through the system pretty seamlessly. We have to get the demand into digestible components to process it, and roll-out the technology that can manage this. We had this tight system where we had persons applying within five days, and everyone who is vaccinated is now applying three, four and five weeks in advance.

“We have a hybrid system that right now is creating issues that we are trying to address. It’s a very fluid situation. We’re evolving. We don’t want to unnecessarily frustrate our customers. The website was designed to deal with testing in five days, and now it has morphed into a vaccinated environment.

“It’s a greater change than we anticipated, but we’re trying to adjust the website to take into consideration the new dynamics. We’re working at it assiduously right now. We’re all hands on deck trying to resolve it.”

Some observers may argue that, in a sense, this is a good problem for The Bahamas to have as it indicates that the removal of the COVID-19 PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers appears to already be unleashing the pent-up demand that hotels and other tourism operators have been praying for.

However, Mr D’Aguilar’s fears that potential tourists may be deterred by these technical woes from coming to The Bahamas are not unfounded based on what two US visitors told this newspaper yesterday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they warned that this nation will “lose a lot of people” unless it resolves the arduous wait they endured - and are still enduring - for approved health visas.

One said: “It’s not just me. I submitted my application on Friday at 11am in the morning, There was no response. I said it must be in process. I never heard anything, called at 10am on Saturday night and then it came through after one-and-a-half hours and a $125 phone bill.

“Now my friend from Florida, who has not been to The Bahamas in two years, submitted his health visa application on Friday morning and got no response. He’s been on hold since 11am today. He’s now number 84 in the queue and was number 124.”

Questioning why The Bahamas did not simply do away with the health travel visa, as well as the negative COVID-19 PCR test requirement, for vaccinated travellers, the source warned that such impediments could cause this nation to miss out on enjoying its share of pent-up global travel demand. “The process is broken. Do something or you’re going to lose a lot of people.”

The Florida friend, who works as a resort property management consultant, said he had been unable “to get hold of someone for two days” since submitting his health travel visa application on Friday. “I’d heard before that it was relatively easy; don’t worry, no problem,” they added. “I sent in the stuff, but can’t get through on those numbers.

“I called early today [yesterday] and was 124th in the queue. I said I can’t do that, and now I’m on hold at 75 or something. We’re supposed to be there on Wednesday [tomorrow], and it looks like we might have to postpone or cancel the trip if we cannot get the health visa. It’s pretty frustrating. It seems very hard to get over there [to The Bahamas].”

They said they spent an hour-and-a-half on Friday completing the application process, and obtaining a confirmation number that remains pending, but two of their travelling companions were unable to access it via their mobile phones.

“Now I’m like: ‘Hey, are we going’,” they said. “I’ll sit on the phone as long as it takes. I hate to cancel because I know we’ve been looking forward to this trip, but it’s going to be devastating for others. They’re going to give up. I’m super motivated. In the day, I used to travel to The Bahamas back and forth every month.

“But there are a lot of places closer and easier to travel to [for Americans]. They’ll say: ‘Forget it’. This frustration pushes persons in another direction. This summer is going to be crazy with people wanting to travel. We’re waiting for an absolute boom, and if we’re going to get it you guys should get it out of Miami. It’s a shame.

“We’re going to hang on the phone, but most people are not going to stay on the phone for three hours. They are not going to do it. It’s pretty crazy.”