Friday, July 9, 2021
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
FOUR hundred and forty thousand stopover visitors have spent an estimated $875m in The Bahamas during the first six months of 2021, Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday.
Mr D’Aguilar said the number of arrivals comes from the travel health visa.
“This is indicating that tourism is bouncing back in a meaningful way,” he said. “And it does not include cruise passengers who would have commenced their journey from North America. We didn’t have many of those in the first six months, but hopefully there will be a robust rebound in the second half of 2021 when more cruises commence from North America.”
Mr D’Aguilar noted that at least 13,000 cruise passengers will be stopping in New Providence this month.
“The number of arrivals so far this year represents just over 50 percent of what we did in 2019 for the first six months but more importantly, for the month of June, the number of visitors represents 82 percent of what we received in June 2019,” he said. “Every month we’re getting more and more... the rebound continues.”
Mr D’Aguilar previously revealed that there were 22,000 visitors in January; 20,000 in February; 64,000 in March; 68,000 in April; 110,000 in May and 140,000 in June.
He has said 60 percent of the visitors were bound for New Providence while the rest were headed to Family Islands.
Still, worries about the Delta variant of COVID-19 is tempering the expectations officials have for the next several months.
Health officials revealed on Tuesday an influx of COVID-19 patients has left Princess Margaret Hospital operating at full capacity.
“Health professionals would have said the number of persons in hospital is reaching the peak and everybody in the hospital hadn’t been vaccinated so this is why it’s so terribly important for people to be vaccinated,” Mr D’Aguilar said.
“The more people that get vaccinated, that lessens the probability of these spikes.”
Comments
whogothere says...
> “The more people that get vaccinated, that lessens the probability of these spikes.”
Just simply false information...England Israel Seychelles Chile Portugal Spain... high vaccination cases and keep coming.. the logic behind this kind of thinking would be only that if more people were vaccinated then under current policy you would test less people...therefore discover less cases...
Posted 9 July 2021, 5:36 p.m. Suggest removal
tribanon says...
Not to woory. No righted minded person believes anything coming out of D'Aguilar's mouth.
Posted 9 July 2021, 5:51 p.m. Suggest removal
Topdude says...
And what about what comes out of your mouth?
Posted 9 July 2021, 7:30 p.m. Suggest removal
tribanon says...
People like you tend to listen.....with you leading the charge. lol
Posted 10 July 2021, 10 a.m. Suggest removal
whogothere says...
It's just like last July all over again...D'ag is just running the rope to hang himself with...Hubris followed by disaster..followed by knuckled headed policy that fail to acknowledge the facts - 96-98% will not go to hospital if (and only if) they catch it and of that 2% that are hospitalised only 98-99% will not die...(1000 people get it, 20 might end up in hospital but only 1 might die) England knows this which is why in spite of the cases increases they are doing away with most emergency orders by July 19..Bahamas most follow suit or by the time fall hits team Minnis will be up to their eyeballs in case regardless of whether get Bahamians vaccinated or not..
Posted 9 July 2021, 6:14 p.m. Suggest removal
ohdrap4 says...
When the economy rebounds, Covid ricochets.
Please Boris, end the emergency order so the copycat follows.
The CDC now said vaccinated teachers and students can go maskless. What a crock.
But hey, I wear my mask, you all catch covid.
Posted 9 July 2021, 9:19 p.m. Suggest removal
whogothere says...
Masks would not do any good anyway against an aerosolized pathogen - but hard to back meddle when you ve destroyed the economy, kids educations, small business and well likely killed a few people with lockdowns by preventing travel and forcing prolong indoor cohabitation.
Posted 10 July 2021, 8:22 a.m. Suggest removal
carltonr61 says...
Covid has become globally monitized. Trump not having a world War sure messed up money makers industry and prof. We owe 10billion dollars and yet they skim our money to their grandchildren bank books.
Posted 9 July 2021, 9:27 p.m. Suggest removal
tribanon says...
Brain-dead D'Aguilar doesn't understand that the vaccinated tourists coming to our shores can still be asymptomatic carriers of the Wuhan virus, including its Delta variant. These vaccinated tourists are now learning that they may only have temporary protection from getting seriously ill, but nevertheless are still very able carriers and spreaders of the Wuhan virus and its variants.
And it doesn't seem to matter to dumbo Minnis and his dumber side-kick D'Aguilar that even the few in our nation willing to get jabbed with these warp speed developed vaccines, approved for experimental use only on a voluntary basis, can't even get the required doses of the much better and much less risky FDA approved vaccines that U.S. citizens have been getting jabbed with. Why are we always having to beg for and get the inferior Communist China connected stuff being pushed to third world countries by the CCP controlled WHO and its affiliate, the PAHO?
Posted 10 July 2021, 10:28 a.m. Suggest removal
John says...
D’Aguilar is about building his legacy and/or boosting his chances of being re-elected. The increasing covid-19 cases is directly related to increased visitor arrivals . Rather than continue to increase the numbers, D’Aguilar should find a comfort level for visitor arrivals. Then after that there should be a waiting list. Visitors staying in hotels should be given priority over cruise passengers. But maybe natural heard immunity will be created and Bahamians will become immune to Corona.
Posted 11 July 2021, 6:40 a.m. Suggest removal
John says...
And it really doesn’t make sense how Bahamians are crowding some restaurants and establishments out west especially. Children included. Once the crowd becomes too thick or too large, it negates the fact that you are outside. The Covid-19 force needs to visit these establishments and indicate how many persons can be seated at any one time. Remember everyone has to remove their masks to eat or drink and being jammed up in close quarters can easily lead to breathing in a stranger’s face.
Posted 11 July 2021, 6:48 a.m. Suggest removal
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