The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Family Island hotelier yesterday urged the Government to keep the COVID-19 PCR test's validity at an extended seven days past the Christmas holidays to boost tourism's revival.

Chris Morris, the Cape Eleuthera Resort and Marina's general manager, told Tribune Business experience showed that meeting The Bahamas' requirement for visitors to obtain a negative PCR test within five days of travel was simply too tight a timeline for many.

“The relaxation from five to seven days helps," he said of the Government's decision to relax COVID testing restrictions and facilitate inter-island travel over the Christmas holidays. "In south Florida it is easy to get the RT-PCR test done in a quick time. Everywhere else that is not the case.

"My wife as well as great family friends have had the hardest time with the five-day timeline. They all have travelled to Eleuthera over 100 times. If they can hardly get it done, how does the first time traveller? We need to push to extend to seven days going forward.”

Mr Morris spoke after the Government altered its Emergency Powers orders to extend the validity of a negative COVID-19 PCR test to seven days until January 4, 2021

He added: “The New Year brings optimism. We have a lot of marina reservations for three to six months. This appears to be a new thing for 2021; boaters wanting to establish a home base. This is awesome and I love it.

"We just reopened the hotel and restaurant last Friday. We see reservations coming in but need to fill some gaps late January and early February. Besides that, New Year's is almost sold out and that is encouraging. I am so happy to have all employees back to work at Cape Eleuthera. We are ready to go and it’s happening”

Cheryl Bastian, owner/operator of Swain's Cay Lodge in Andros, said the relaxation of COVID-19 testing protocols will be “quite significant" for the Family Islands. She added: “I'm sure it'll help a lot of my guests who are pushing during the Christmas holiday to get results from the lab when people are also on holiday, so I think it was great idea. Good thinking.”

Ms Bastian said January was looking good for bookings even though there had been some cancellations. She added that business volumes appeared promising up until mid-May 2021.

"People are really concerned. They don't even want to come out of their houses in New York and other places,” Ms Bastan said, suggesting this was the reason for January's cancellations.

Despite this, her “diehard” guests are still travelling for the New Year. “I have a Bahamian family coming in, and I have an American family coming in, so January is going to give me a little bit of business. But I see February, March, April and May really panning out,” Ms Bastian said, disclosing that she has a 20-person group booked for May 2021.

Matthew Brear, general manager of Long Island's Cape Santa Maria property, said that the relaxation of COVID-19 travel protocols will have “zero” impact on tourists, arguing that persons have already decided if and where they are travelling.

Mr Brear is forecasting a 40 percent decline in business in 2021 as compared to 2019, adding: "That’s not too bad. This returns us to the same volume of business we enjoyed in 2013. We project the New Year to start slowly but gradually improve with the administration of vaccines and improved traveller confidence."