Tourism requirements

As of Friday, November 20, 2020

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Exciting articles in your newspaper the past week about the imminent rebound of tourism with hotels reopening and new easier tests are absolutely unbelievable considering the harsh entry requirements. Who will fill the hotels and resorts if they cannot gain entry? It is like a fairy story.

Most prospective visitors and returning winter residents like my family cannot travel because the five-day rule and the bureaucratic Health Visa cannot be completed in time to travel. Who would purchase an air ticket and put money down for accommodation not knowing whether they can actually take the few flights available? Busy working people do not have the time to get the tests, go to get the results, scan these to Nassau and await confirmation about travel. You cannot plan with any degree of certainty. Requiring expensive tests will also deter many from coming.

I could never believe that we would be prevented from going to our own property in The Bahamas due to the poorly designed entry policies. Our travel agent is advising clients to look elsewhere. They are booking people to other destinations which are easier to enter.

How can the Bahamian economy ever rebound if your policies prevent even eager visitors from coming? Drop the Health Visa and allow people to bring test results no older than seven days and there may be a chance of recovery. Otherwise you must face the reality of a lost tourist season with many disappointed former fans of Bahamaland.

EDWARD MOSSMAN

Ontario, Canada

November 17, 2020

JokeyJack 3 years, 4 months ago

They won't face the reality until it becomes a reality - that's the Bahamian way. The land of dreams and promises since 1973. The people eat dreams and drink promises, that is their sustenance (along with Ramen noodles and weenie in da can).

The sad fact is that the entire world must simply sit by and wait until the election virus subsides. All except for Africa where they live in towns made up of tiny tin huts, smooshed together so close that social distancing is impossible and there is barely any running water for hand washing, and insufficient masks. However, their virus counts and deaths are WAY LOW. Some think it is because they have been using the deadly poisonous hydroxychloriquine suggested by Donald Trump - the same medicine they have used for malaria for about 70 years. It is commonly available there without a prescription.

They are alive and well, with hardly any impact from the virus. Shouldn't the hydroxy have killed them all by now? Amazing also how African countries (or no country besides UK and Italy) are never mentioned in US news with regard to the virus. Notice how you never see any graphs of death counts, they only show case count graphs.

Proguing 3 years, 4 months ago

Good point.

ThisIsOurs 3 years, 4 months ago

a couple of reasons Africa has a very young population and they have a system in place for dealing with highly infectious virus outbreaks.

As to the letter writer. I often wonder who does the thinking. I said months ago the only way this works is if testing and booking are completed through a single system. Thats literally the only way it will work. All the other methods are doomed to fail

If the govt was inclusive, did not coopt ideas, the "Bahamas" could have produced a digital solution that the world would be using, earning us millions... they could have done this months ago. but no, they want to give contracts to trifling people who using "AI" to process travel visa pass/ fail

FrustratedBusinessman 3 years, 4 months ago

I agree with you in that I think hydroxychloroquine was unfairly thrown under the bus. Things make sense when you realize that these hospitals get paid for every COVID case that they receive (at least in the States), hence the large number of false positives with no rush for a solution.

At the same time, I highly doubt that numbers from Africa are accurate. These are the same people that cannot figure out how to grow food or have running water (the second includes us as well, sadly), I highly doubt that they know what they are doing testing-wise.

benniesun 3 years, 4 months ago

@FrustratedBusinessman

Ignorant: Destitute of knowledge, either in general or with respect to a particular fact or subject; unknowing, uninformed, unlearned.

Your comment exposes hubris and ignorance. The Bahamas and Haiti are under the same system that suppresses Africa. Our failure to know is by design and indoctrination of the system.

FrustratedBusinessman 3 years, 4 months ago

Lol, the only system that the Bahamas is under is the fact that D average idiots continue to make decisions that screw up the lives of everyone else in the nation.

50+ years after majority rule, and certain parts of Nassau have to rely on community pumps; sad for 2020. I have family on Abaco that still have no running water almost a year and a half after the passing of Hurricane Dorian.

What you call ignorance is actually the truth. The only system oppressing these countries is the system of stupidity. Morons with no qualifications to lead these countries continually end up in charge, and then people act surprised when things never get better.

Haiti brought their own issues on them when they decided to kill off all of the white people, a pattern of violence which continues to this day. Same situation in Africa, look at the collapse of Rhodesia, and South Africa today, and watch the pattern keep repeating.

The only system holding these countries down is the system of the inability to learn lol.

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