By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business
Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
The Bahamian tourism industry has seen “no impact” from the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the US, a senior hotelier said yesterday.
Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, told Tribune Business that infection numbers will continue to fluctuate until the virus has been totally eradicated or brought under greater control.
The US is in the middle of a surge in COVID-19 cases with BA.5, an offshoot of the Omicron variant, now the dominant strain, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The BA.5 sub-variant carries “key mutations” that help it evade antibodies generated by vaccines and prior infection, aiding its rapid spread.
And, a result of the variant being more virulent, hospitalisation rates are expected to increase along with the rise in infections. Infections through the BA.5 variant will also likely be underreported because of the rise in at-home testing, with results simply not reported because they have been historically hard to track.
But, despite the spike in COVID infections in The Bahamas’ key source markets in the US, there has been “no impact on bookings” to-date, Mr Sands said.
He added: “There is certainly no indication that it will impact travel to international destinations, and neither has there been any reaction by the CDC, which will be an indicator of what may or may not happen. So, at this time, it’s just something we continue to monitor, but I think we have to be satisfied that cases will fluctuate from time to time.”
The Bahamas is still benefiting from “pent-up demand” among US travellers in the pandemic’s aftermath as the country remains “top of mind precisely because of proximity in terms of closeness to our main market and also the time to get here”.
Mr Sands said: “I think people are satisfied that we’ve also done a very good job in terms of COVID management, and also the fact that there are very few impediments to travel to come to this destination at this point in time. So I think all of that is a very positive indication that pent-up demand, and also interest in the destination of The Bahamas, will continue for some time.”
While efforts to market The Bahamas have been less noticeable than in the past, Mr Sands said: “I think what you are not seeing is that marketing comes in multiple forms. Social media is perhaps the most effective form of marketing and our business today. So you’re not going to see a lot of the splash, expensive TV ads.”
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