by Linda Straker
- Over 2,000 workers are directly affected by temporary closures
- Covid-19 has levelled the tourism playing field
- Grenada has opportunity to command more global tourism market share
- Tourism opportunity key is citizens becoming vaccinated and reaching herd immunity
Barry Collymore, chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) believes that Covid-19 has provided a unique opportunity for tourism in Grenada and the rest of the Caribbean. The key to capitalising on that opportunity is citizens becoming vaccinated and reaching herd immunity in the quickest possible time.
“We have a solution; vaccine is the solution,” he said. Collymore admits that measures such as lockdowns and restricting the movement of citizens taken by Governments around in the world in 2020 had to be done because there was no other solution.
“We now have a tremendous opportunity in that every single tourism destination has been impacted and what that has done is that it has levelled the playing field. Whereas, before you had many countries that were far ahead of Grenada, far ahead of the Caribbean, we now have the opportunity to bounce back and command more,” Collymore said during a news conference on Wednesday, 7 April 2021.
Collymore, who was appointed in November 2020 as chairman of the board of the Grenada Tourism Authority, said that the opportunity is not just to increase tourism numbers for Grenada and the Caribbean, but to compete for more share space on the global market.
“We have an opportunity to command more of the global tourism market share and the reason why we have that opportunity is because we have done so well in the management or relatively well in the management of Covid,” he said.
Pointing out that travel destinations in Europe and South-East Asia that are huge tourism market are not yet at the point of stabilising their tourism industry, Collymore said that visitors from the USA and UK can increase to the Caribbean region because of the current situation in other markets.
“We have the opportunity to reopen. We have the opportunity to capture more of that British share; we have the opportunity to capture more of the US market share,” he said as he pleaded for Grenadians and other Caribbean citizens to take the Covid-19 vaccine that is available.
“Within the next 4 to 6 weeks depending on our we handle our vaccination campaign, at the moment it’s pretty low…If we can get those numbers up, we can have a different type of tourism season, where you see much more persons coming to Grenada and rest of the Caribbean,” he said.
In most destinations in Caricom, less than 25% of their population is vaccinated. Collymore said that once more people become vaccinated, the opportunity exists for a good winter season for the 2021/2022 period.
“We have the opportunity to have a real good summer. We have the opportunity to have a really early winter season, starting as early as November. November could be a very special month for us. We are at a point now, where the decision we make over the next 6 to 8 weeks will determine whether or not our hotels open and other businesses,” he said.
With Covid-19 affecting travel and tourism negatively, a few properties in Grenada have shut their doors, sending workers home. In Grenada, over 2,000 workers are directly affected by the temporary closures.
Grenada Government has since announced that all frontline workers at hotels and quarantine facilities will have to be mandatorily vaccinated.
Does anyone realize that a vaccine only protects the person taking it no one else . You can still carry the virus but you don’t get sick . Look it up I did .
Risk from vaccine far outweigh the risk of getting covid19… Millions have gotten the astra vaccine and no on has died. Millions have gotten covid19 and millions have died from covid19. We can hide under a rock and continue to hope covid19 just goes away or we can step up and get our shots so we can start back to normal way of life.
You missed my simple point; why is the government mandating universal vaccine, without taking into account the health of the unborn? You are either representing a business or government agency, so I will excuse your myopia. No matter what you are, or claim to be, you are engaging in exploitative behavior. The people of Grenada is what Grenada desirable so if you and those you represent are not able to generate and extract revenue from our soil, then just pack up and go home.
How can a “vaccine” which has not been fully vetted be mandatory? What about pregnant and expectant mothers? This is greed and lunacy, but I am not surprised that my people are being treated worse now than when the British were here!
Absolutely, do it!
More clarity is needed because we hear all these talks about vacation but there is no data on the citizens of Grenada.
Can we tell who is where and what information is held on those listed.
The people running the tourist industry should make a public stand and all get vaccine on tv as a way forward.
It’s time. We are waiting since last December !!! But no flights, only quarantaine…
My wife and I are vaccinated with the second injection since 1 month. Have we to support a quarantaine in Grenada ? If yes we are lokking for an other destination. So sorry…
That’s a very good idea but one thing I want to know if I am fully vaccinated do I still have to quarantine when I arrived in Grenada
Seeing as they have figured out that they can prop up their hotel industry by forcing you to pay for your room in full while quarantining, i would bet on it lol
I was just checking this website to see some news about the volcano. Glad to see it did not impact grenada , but after visiting the country during a cruise a few years back, im not sure its really worth it. It seems to mainly be a destination for cheap budget cut europeans. The country is really under-developed, and I noticed both from comments here and from my impressions with speaking to them, that the locals have this huge superiority complex and a chip on their shoulder. Beautiful geography but the locals ruin it for me.
Tons of other islands with the same features. Beaches are not rare nor exclusive to grenada. I will be taking my caribbean vacation in DR where the women arent all obese.