Anguilla is continuing to implement plans to restart its economy, and a high level of employment in the hospitality sector while protecting its citizenry from the coronavirus. As an important part of this effort, the Minister of Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, is particularly anxious to see the opening of Anguilla as soon as possible.
“As Minister of Tourism, I am keen on opening for this year, hopefully, given a number of protocols that will be in place to ensure our safety,” he told The Anguillian newspaper. “But we must be able to balance the health and safety of our people with economic activity. As Minister of Tourism, I am keen on opening for tourism later this year, as I said, and we have a general idea about how this looks. This is because, along with myself, Ms. Andia Ravariere [of the Ministry of Tourism], the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Aisha Andrewin, sometimes the Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie, and the Chairman of the Tourist Board. [Mr. Kenroy Herbert], we have been touring a number of properties and holding discussions with General Managers.
“Thus far, we have already toured Four Seasons Resort and Belmond Cap Juluca Resort. We have seen the protocols and the training that Belmond Cap Juluca will be putting in place; and we will be having a meeting to get a whole overview of the protocols that Four Seasons will also be putting in place to ensure the safety of their guests and the paramount safety of staff.
“We will also be touring Zemi Beach Hotel, very shortly, to see what they are planning to put in place to ensure the safety of their guests and staff. As you know, the hospitality sector has been the hardest-hit sector by the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the fifty-four million people who have lost their jobs in the United States, 29.1 percent of them are hospitality workers. So the hospitality and aviation industries, across the world, have gotten a significant hit. The question is, how do we emerge out of this to ensure the safety of our respective populations while creating economic opportunities?
“St. Lucia has done it safety. I was just looking at the protocols that have been put in place there; and we have to look at best practices and tailor them to our specific needs.
Replying to a question from the newspaper, the Minister of Tourism went on: “The hotels would love to open, and every Friday I have been meeting via Zoom with them. Most of those meetings have also been attended by the Premier, Dr. Ellis Webster, and the Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie – but I have been meeting with the hoteliers every Friday religiously. And they definitely want to open.
“I believe that there is a way we can do it. We just have to ensure that everybody is on board. When I say everybody, I am talking about the healthcare practitioners and the island on a whole. Yes, it can be done.
“An interesting tour we had was the one with the General Manager of Four Seasons who, as you know, was one of the persons who had Covid-19. We dealt with him and the virus was not transferred to anyone else. This says that we already know how to deal with persons who have contracted the virus – and once we train our people we can minimise the risk. One of the prerequisites for coming to Anguilla is that persons have to conform to a COVID test on arrival. I believe that we really and truly can mimimise the risk. But we must not believe that, at some point, someone with COVID will not enter Anguilla. It is just that we are trying to reduce the chances of this happening and to eliminate any kind of community spread.
“Right now, it is virtually impossible for us to have any kind of community spread of COVID unless our borders are breached. Once that is not the case, we will control the entire process.”
Mr. Hughes explained that, unlike hotels, villas had been given the go ahead to reopen. “This relates to those which have been training their staff,” he told The Anguillian. “There was a training session via Zoom, with PAHO, for persons working at the villas. There are villas which are on board, although some tourists question our fees, restrictions and protocols; and we have been getting pushback on that from them. Probably we have not done a good enough job to let them know that these are costs that we have to incur and that we cannot absorb them. On the other hand, there are some persons who have been visiting Anguilla for many years who have said that if this is what we do, it is what we have to do. Other individuals have said if we have to be quarantined for a month, we will do so.”
The Minister of Tourism added: “Every person we quarantine costs us over eight thousand EC dollars. Thus far, the taxpayers of Anguilla have spent over 3.7 million dollars to quarantine persons, and, based on projections going forward, it will be another four million dollars if we don’t do something to recoup our costs. It is definitely not sustainable. In total, we will be spending 7.7 million dollars just to take care of persons – for their room, tests, security surveillance, etc. It is a very expensive measure. Just imagine what 7.7 million dollars could have done otherwise. For us to pay that for our tourists, we will be losing. The villas etc will make some money but, Government, on a whole, will definitely be subsidising the cost and we just cannot afford it.”
Meanwhile, a table of fees, to be paid by quarantined persons in Anguilla – provided by the Chief Medical Officer – has been published elsewhere in this edition of The Anguillian newspaper for general information.
