As countries around the world reopen for business, SVG’s Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Carlos James said low vaccination numbers are harming the country’s tourism sector.
SVG has seen a slight uptick in visitors with the return of American Airlines mid-week flights, the return of Caribbean Airlines and weekly flights by Virgin Atlantic.
James speaking on WeFm on Sunday, talked about the dilemma the industry is facing.
“We have a dilemma where the cruise passengers and the ships have indicated well “we want you to be clear on your protocols. We want to be able to visit as many places as we can in your destination”.
“We have had the interesting challenge where we have put in place protocols, but there are other countries within in the region who are saying, “our vaccine uptake is relatively high, you’re free to come and walk around, you’re coming fully vaccinated. You’re free to come off of the ships and walk around to anywhere”.
James said, however, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Gov’t have to be primarily concerned about the local population’s health regarding how they are protected from persons who are coming.
“Another challenge is that persons who are coming, we also have to protect them from any possible outbreak, to lower the transmission of the COVID-19 virus as well”.
According to Cruisetimetable.com, SVG is expected to see 76 cruise calls between November 2021 and April 2022.
According to the timetable, the MV Britannia will dock in port Kingstown on Thursday, 4 November 2021.
