The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent Bahamas hotel executive yesterday reiterated warnings that this nation’s relatively slow vaccine roll-out threatens to undermine its competitiveness versus rival tourism destinations.

Magnus Alnebeck, the Pelican Bay resort’s general manager, told Tribune Business that The Bahamas must focus on “getting as many people vaccinated as we can” - especially hospitality industry and other front-line workers - rather than become bogged down in arguments over whether inoculations should be made mandatory.

Pointing out that the Maldives and other rival destinations are promoting how many of their tourism industry workers have been vaccinated to-date, while also giving jabs to visitors, he added: “The more we can drive up the rate of people wanting to get vaccinated the better off we’ll be.

“The official statistic is we are at two percent [of the population getting their first jab], and that’s one of the lowest in the region. You look at places like Turks & Caicos and further south in the Caribbean where they are much further ahead in vaccinating the general population but particularly the front-line and hospitality staff, that’s becoming a big competitive thing.

“The Maldives is supposed to be sending out a press release saying 70 percent of their hospitality staff have been vaccinated, and they and Alaska are giving the vaccine to visitors. I think what is happening is that the vaccination rate is becoming a competitive tool,” Mr Alnebeck said.

“We’ve been pre-occupied with the debate on whether it is legal to make vaccination mandatory or not. We should focus on getting as many people vaccinated as we can. Once you have to be vaccinated to go to the Fish Fry it’s an easy choice, isn’t it? Or if you don’t have to be home by 11pm because you’re vaccinated it’s an easy decision.”

Mr Alnebeck voiced optimism that The Bahamas can catch up even though its present vaccination rate is lagging many of its peers. “There is no question we are behind, but this is a marathon, not a sprint,” he added. “There is always an opportunity to catch up, and a lot of people hesitant to get the vaccine, when they realise they can travel freely in The Bahamas, that will drive the numbers up.

“Then it’s up to the Government to purchase enough so we don’t get into the position of there being more people wanting to get vaccinated than there are vaccines. The more we can encourage our population, and particularly people working in the hospitality industry and front-line workers, to get vaccinated, the quicker we can get those numbers up the more attractive we’ll be for travellers and we’ll be safer for ourselves.”

Mr Alnebeck’s comments echo those of Kerry Fountain, the Out Islands Promotion Board’s executive director, who told Tribune Business earlier this week that Bahamians are endangering their jobs, incomes and families through resistance to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

Warning that this improved resort performance could be undermined by the latest surge in COVID-19 infections in The Bahamas, Mr Fountain reiterated that the pace and strength of the tourism industry’s rebound - and that of the wider economy - remains dependent on keeping case numbers “under control” as well as the continued vaccine roll-our here and in major tourism source markets.

“We have the benefit that the positive trajectory will continue as long as we can keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control,” he told this newspaper. “We know we have challenges because of how the US is experiencing a fourth surge, and we in The Bahamas are experiencing a third surge.

“It’s very important that the distribution of the vaccine, and the pace at which the distribution is done in the US and in The Bahamas, it’s very important those persons who have access to the vaccine step up to the plate and get it done.

“I see on the news and in the dailies [newspapers] there’s talk of some companies wanting to make it mandatory for workers to get the vaccine, and I see they are facing some headwinds from a legal perspective.

“What I’m seeing from here [in the US] and reading, the state of Alaska, if you visit their destination they state they will be providing you with the vaccine as a visitor regardless of whether you are a visitor. While in The Bahamas we are debating whether or not to take the vaccine, their destination is giving out the vaccine because it gives them a competitive advantage,” Mr Fountain added.

“On the one hand we have to ask ourselves: Do we want to be legal, or do we want to take the vaccine as a way of bringing income to the family household? Do we continue to say we don’t want to take the vaccine because it’s my legal right but, at the same time, you’re not giving your place of employment a competitive advantage?

“If we don’t have a competitive advantage, and the hotels, restaurants and tour vendors are not making money, they’re going to close shop. We have to decide where we want to be. Do we want to live to the same standard, or do we want to go back on the employment [unemployment] line.”