Grenada’s Prime Minister, Dr. the Rt. Hon. Keith Mitchell, says the Spice Isle and other countries in the region are trying to restart the tourism sector and it’s proving to be quite a challenge.
He was speaking this morning on a UNDP-organized panel discussion on the future of tourism, particularly for the region, taking into account COVID-19.
He was joined by his Dominican counterpart, along with other distinguished panelists, looking at the sector and labeled as an important income earner.
Dr. Mitchell further looked at the rate of COVID-19 in some countries, with aggressive variants and more and more border closures.
He sees it as one of concern for regional tourism, a situation which leaves room for uncertainty.
The Grenadian leader, however, remains optimistic the tourism industry will rebound and recover, further noting that safety must be at the heart of all efforts.
Dr. Mitchell spoke of being disappointed that no Caribbean country was included on the UK Green Light List of safe countries approved for non-essential travel.
Based on how COVID-19 has been managed in some countries, he made the claim that Grenada and a few other territories should have been on that list.
Dr. Mitchell also looked at harmonization of initiatives that can aggressively boost intra-regional travel, especially in the post-COVID era.
He again suggested reducing travel tax and making the cost of airline tickets more affordable.
Dominican Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerritt, believes the discussion on the subject is timely, since no one person has the perfect solution of how best to address the crisis for the tourism and transportation industry, brought about by the pandemic.
Skerritt did define the COVID problem that hit the tourism sector as a weapon inflicting a hard blow.
The Dominican Leader called for creativity and innovation, as well as joint marketing, in the implementation of a strategic approach to shore up the tourism sector.
