‘Elephant in the room’ for 1m stopover target

Thursday, July 8, 2021

• Minister eyes 80% of 2019 tourism levels by winter

• But ‘walking on egg shells’ over vaccine reluctance

• So govt ‘will take COVID inoculation to the people’

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said he is targeting one million stopover tourist arrivals for 2021 but acknowledged that COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy remains “the elephant in the room” for this ambition.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that the government will have to be more aggressive in persuading Bahamians to become inoculated so that this nation can avoid infection “spikes” such as the one that dampened Bimini’s US Independence holiday business the past weekend.

Suggesting that the government will “have to take the vaccine to the people, if the people do not come to the vaccine”, he argued that The Bahamas “doesn’t have that much time” to improve inoculation rates if it wants to sustain its present tourism and economic rebound while remaining competitive with rival destinations.

Mr D’Aguilar said the general reluctance to become vaccinated against COVID-19 meant The Bahamas was continuing to “walk on egg shells” when it came to surges in case numbers that could result in it being downgraded by health authorities in major tourist source markets, such as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nevertheless, the minister said he was aiming for The Bahamas to recover 80 percent of the stopover tourism business it enjoyed during 2019’s record-breaking arrivals year by the Christmas/New Year holiday season and 2022 first quarter.

He based his optimism on the continued monthly uptick in stopover arrivals that saw foreign visitors purchase some 131,000 health travel visas in June, representing a figure that was 30 percent below the 187,029 that visited The Bahamas in the same month during June 2019.

Despite the 56,000-plus difference, Mr D’Aguilar said the gap between this year’s and 2019’s performance was narrowing every month, with May having been off by 37 percent, as the economy’s re-opening and vaccination roll-outs in tourist source markets continue to maintain pace.

“It was 131,000 in June and is increasing every month,” he told this newspaper of stopover visitor arrivals. “It was 22,000 in January, 30,000 in February, 64,000 in March, 68,000 in April and 110,000 in May, so every month it has gone up. It’s keeping in line, and every month it’s ticking up.

“We’re bouncing back. I spoke to all the hotel operators, Atlantis and Baha Mar, and they had a very good holiday weekend with high occupancies and are very upbeat about their booking engines. They’re demonstrating that the pace of growth in visitors coming in is outpacing what they were doing in 2019. In the Family Islands, they’re very positive and upbeat about the next four to six weeks.”

With The Bahamas continuing to benefit from pent-up demand in its key US travel market, Mr D’Aguilar added: “I always figured we’d get one million stopover visitors [this year]. That’s kind of my target. At the end of June we had 400,000-plus, 425,000, so I’m hoping for the second half of the year, although we may have weather events and September and October are traditionally slow months.”

Achieving the minister’s goal would only see The Bahamas attract 55.6 percent of the 1.8m stopovers who came to these shores in 2019, but Mr D’Aguilar indicated his belief that sufficient momentum will build during the second half to translate into a strong winter season. “I’m aiming for 80 percent of what we did in 2019. Let’s pray we have no weather events,” he added of the 2021-2022 winter peak.

However, with less than 25 percent of The Bahamas’ estimated population receiving one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to-date, this nation still has a long way to travel to reach the 75-80 percent level regarded as critical to achieving so-called ‘herd immunity’ against the virus.

Low inoculation levels could retard The Bahamas’ ability to fully re-open its tourism industry and wider economy, and Mr D’Aguilar yesterday reiterated that this remains a key concern for policymakers.

“It’s the hesitancy and reluctance of the vaccine uptake, and what it’s doing is making us very susceptible to spikes in cases,” he told Tribune Business. “These spikes can have a real dampener on the destination, especially if it leads to changes in the US CDC rankings and the UK’s ‘green, amber, red’ ratings.

“That’s our only fear. That’s the elephant in the room. You’re walking on egg shells every day that you don’t get spikes in numbers. It manifested itself in Bimini, where we had a spike again and they did not benefit from Crystal Cruises’ first voyage. It was a curfew, not a lockdown, but I’m sure that it dampened demand for that destination.”

Mr D’Aguilar lamented that critical factors influencing the strength and pace of The Bahamas’ post-COVID recovery, namely “vaccine uptake and vaccine roll-out”, remained largely outside this nation’s control. But once this nation has secured an adequate vaccine supply, he added that it then needs to “have a conversation with individual Bahamians that this is the best thing for them”.

“As the health officials say, the people in the hospitals haven’t been vaccinated. Hopefully, that starts to percolate through to people,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “Unfortunately, the evidence which we have to lay out is that all the people in the hospital are the ones not vaccinated. This demonstrates that if you have been vaccinated and catch it, you will not get sick that you have to go to hospital.”

Asked whether the Government needs to mount a more aggressive education campaign to persuade and incentivise Bahamians to become fully vaccinated, he replied: “Clearly, clearly. If you are getting this level of hesitancy, the Government clearly has to work harder to convince Bahamians that this is the right thing for them.

“It would be easier if everybody bought into this, but we have to have this personal conversation with everyone to convince them this is the right thing. We’ve got to have this conversation. If people will not come to the vaccine, we will have to take the vaccine to the people. It’s not ideal, but we’ve been doing it to a certain degree in the Family Islands.

“People say they will sign up to it, but we don’t have that much time. Let’s face it, COVID-19 is here for the rest of our lives. People have to learn to deal with it, to live with it, and the only way to protect yourself against fatal effects is to vaccinate. A lot of people say they want to wait and see how it works, but 1.2bn to 1.3bn already have it.”

Comments

TalRussell says...

If only Wash Woman's Lizy is seeing how the red's Comrade Dionisio James, the once believed be unlike his lesser looked-upon red colleagues has become?
**Now reduced** repeatin' any prepared spin of a tall tale gets passed down by the office of the prime minister.
What big disappointment 'em has become for Montagu's constituents,** yes?

Posted 8 July 2021, 2:37 p.m. Suggest removal

birdiestrachan says...

Now that he has to admit he did not know what he was talking just shouting off his mouth

He now says it is the Bahamian people fault, they are not vaccinated

Do they have the vaccine??

Posted 8 July 2021, 2:58 p.m. Suggest removal

thephoenix562 says...

Yes i got mine.

Posted 8 July 2021, 3:06 p.m. Suggest removal

whogothere says...

Nope if everyone want to get it done today they don’t have it...

Posted 8 July 2021, 3:33 p.m. Suggest removal

carltonr61 says...

All is 100% posative which blends as lies and stupedness, when even Israel, UK and USA scientists and medical experts cry out that, yes, there are problems with the vaccination. So we are fools for listening to those nations. Covid has been monitized. There is the QRCode App profit for greed and then health or lack thereof. They don't care.

Posted 8 July 2021, 5 p.m. Suggest removal

newcitizen says...

"posative" "stupedness" I'm not sure I want to take advice from you.

Posted 9 July 2021, 12:58 p.m. Suggest removal

If only the minister had slowed down Bahamians wasting according to the Bahamas Central Bank a whopping 2 billion dollars because he refused to enforce government gambling guidelines to saves lives, families communities that universally designated gambling as DSM-5 and as destructive as our 1980s Cocaine addiction. Families, homes lost, fanancial ruin across every home in the Bahamas to his crass cold disregard for billions lost to gambling boss addiction. He should care for gambling addicts under his portfolio who lost homes, family, religion and lives to gambling addiction. Bahamian Gamblers families lives don't matter along with the money in billions lost to church thides. Now he cares. Really.

Posted 8 July 2021, 5:13 p.m. Suggest removal

WETHEPEOPLE says...

Once again the minsiter makes no sense to me. For as long as the vaccines have been around, if someone was going to take it they would have signed up by now. The longer you go without getting covid or passing away from it the less likely you are to take the vaccine, so im not sure who there is to convince. Deal with it! The majority of Bahamians dont want the vaccine, and they never will. And even if we all decided we wanted to take it, the rate at which we are receiving the vaccines makes his dream of 80% not possible anytime soon

Posted 8 July 2021, 6:23 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

The elephant in the room is that you are not respecting personal choice. **You cannot make a plan and say this plan een working because y'all want exercise yall constitutional rights**. Your plan should have accounted for low compliance, your plan should have accounted for variants that dont respond to the vaccine, your plan should have accounted for a ship with a massive outbreak among **vaccinated** passengers... if your plan doesn't have mitigating actions for all of those highly probable risks, and more, and clearly it doesnt, you dont have a plan

Posted 9 July 2021, 6:25 a.m. Suggest removal

Emac says...

I concur with all you are saying here. But I don't think it's all about being a personal choice when it comes to public health. It's funny that when various businesses and government agencies limit certain activities to only those who are fully vaccinated, people cry out discrimination. So if it's a personal choice, then those who refuse health advise should simply stay out of the public domain and not put others at risk. While we sit in our lil cocoon, we have to realize that the whole world is adapting to these new protocols. The countries that have the most informed citizens are the ones that will ultimately survive this crisis. No matter how we dance around this issue, this country cannot rebound economically until enough of its citizens are vaccinated. The huge problem here is ignorance regarding these vaccines. We cannot even have a sensible conversation about the pros and cons of the AZ without someone bringing up some absurd non proven research or conspiracy to support their choice. I always appreciate this forum because I realize that those who comment here are right thinking intelligent citizens or residents of the Bahamas. Subsequently It astounds me to see the majority of these same posters displaying the same attitude towards the vaccine as the rest of the jungle inhabitants, because of misinformation.

Posted 9 July 2021, 12:09 p.m. Suggest removal

tribanon says...

@Emac: See my **BOLD** remarks inserted in your copied comments below.

I concur with all you are saying here. **NO YOU DON'T CONCUR.** But I don't think it's all about being a personal choice when it comes to public health. **WHEN IT COMES TO ONE'S OWN HEALTH IT'S ALL ABOUT PERSONAL CHOICE AND NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S CHOICE.** It's funny that when various businesses and government agencies limit certain activities to only those who are fully vaccinated, people cry out discrimination. **YOU OBVIOUSLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSONAL CHOICE AND DISCRIMINATION.** So if it's a personal choice, then those who refuse health advise should simply stay out of the public domain and not put others at risk. **THIS IS TANTAMOUNT TO SAYING THOSE WHO DO NOT LET GOVERNMENT DO AWAY WITH THEIR CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES DO NOT BELONG IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN OF AN AUTHORITARIAN POLICE STATE. NO DISAGREEMENT THERE.** While we sit in our lil cocoon, we have to realize that the whole world is adapting to these new protocols. **SUGGEST YOU JUST GET USED TO THE FACT THAT YOUR GREAT LOVE FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER BORN OUT OF THE TYRANNY OF BIG GOVERNMENT IS NOT SHARED BY MANY OF US.** The countries that have the most informed citizens are the ones that will ultimately survive this crisis. **INFORMED BY WHOM? YOU? LOL** No matter how we dance around this issue, this country cannot rebound economically until enough of its citizens are vaccinated. **YOU CLEARLY HAVEN'T HEARD THERE ARE SOME IN OUR COUNTRY WHO ARE REAPING WINDFALL ECONOMIC GAINS FROM THIS PANDEMIC?** The huge problem here is ignorance regarding these vaccines. **THE HUGE PROBLEM HERE IS IGNORANT PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE A FEW JABS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL VACCINE SOMEHOW MAKES THEM SPECIAL.** We cannot even have a sensible conversation about the pros and cons of the AZ without someone bringing up some absurd non proven research or conspiracy to support their choice. **I SERIOUSLY DOUBT YOU'RE INTERESTED IN A SERIOUS CONVERSATION ABOUT ANYTHING.** I always appreciate this forum because I realize that those who comment here are right thinking intelligent citizens or residents of the Bahamas. **THANK YOU, BUT MOST OF HAVE NO NEED FOR YOUR FLATTERY.** Subsequently It astounds me to see the majority of these same posters displaying the same attitude towards the vaccine as the rest of the jungle inhabitants, because of misinformation. **AND MOST OF US ARE EVEN MORE ASTOUNDED BY SHEEP THAT ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE SO EASILY LED TO SLAUGHTER.**

Posted 9 July 2021, 1:21 p.m. Suggest removal

@Tribanon "SUGGEST YOU JUST GET USED TO THE FACT THAT YOUR GREAT LOVE FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER" Thanks for confirming everything I am saying. Sorry but when you come with these kinds of absurd conspiracy theories is when I bow out. Have a nice day!

Posted 9 July 2021, 11:30 p.m. Suggest removal

Ciao.

Posted 11 July 2021, 2:09 p.m. Suggest removal

I dont havd any "misinformation". Im fully aware of the statistics that say taking the vaccine today will provide greater protection against COVID. Im also aware that 1/3 of the deaths from delta variant UK and Israel were in vaccinated individuals. Im also aware that Pfizer is asking permission to deliver a 3rd dose...already.

The only thing I dont know.. what are the long term effects of this vaccine. Its in fact unknowable

Posted 9 July 2021, 7:18 p.m. Suggest removal

Understood!

Posted 9 July 2021, 11:31 p.m. Suggest removal

It's the lack of information, or should I say suppression of information, that's truly telling and has rightfully caused so much mistrust. There's been little to no transparency since day one, mainly due to those who would seem to have at best a misguided agenda, and at worse a most sinister one. The unholy alliance between tyrannical big governments and greedy big businesses around the world is wreaking havoc on all of mankind.

Posted 10 July 2021, 11:47 a.m. Suggest removal