New COVID testing requirements for Canada, UK travel will negatively affect winter tourist season - Bartlett

 

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is predicting that the new COVID-19 testing requirements for people travelling to Canada and the United Kingdom will have negative repercussions for the winter tourist season in Jamaica and the region.

 

Effective last Wednesday, people seeking to enter Canada have to show proof of a negative PCR test, no more than 72 hours old.

 

A similar rule takes effect this week in the UK.

 

With those developments and with the Caribbean being "the most highly tourism dependent region on earth", Mr. Bartlett is worried another large source market, the United States, may also decide to implement new measures for arriving passengers after January 20 when the new administration takes over. 

 

He said discussions are ongoing with the Canadian and UK authorities to have Jamaica exempted from the testing requirements, however, he admitted that with the "sovereign nature of this kind of diplomatic arrangement, people are concerned about what's happening in their country."   

 

 

While tourism numbers are to be significantly reduced by the Canada and UK restrictions, Mr. Bartlett said he could not yet quantify the level of possible losses. However, he insisted that "there is going to be a reduction and our winter projections are going to be off by at least 10 per cent." He said the implications of this falloff will be serious for foreign exchange generation in the country considering the January to April period is usually when there is the highest level of foreign exchange inflows from tourism.