Leisure travel numbers to Latin American countries that removed travel quarantine measures are recovering rapidly at the expense of Jamaica and other countries, industry insiders say.
Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic are the big winners, with the biggest losers seen as being countries in the English-speaking Caribbean, which remain steadfast in quarantine measures.
The insiders said that they respect the individual country’s right to maintain quarantine measures, but indicated that countries that removed it already are back to three-quarters pre-COVID-19 levels.
“We already see other destinations like Cancun and los Cabos that in October 2020 they are already at 70 per cent of the levels compared to 2019. So there is demand to travel and we have to make it easy for travel,” said Shane Munroe, CEO of MBJ Airports Limited, operator of Jamaica’s largest airport, during an economic forum hosted online by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica.
“There is demand to travel, but we have to remove the entry barriers and make travel as seamless as it can be,” said Munroe about Jamaica.
He welcomed rapid testing as a way to get around quarantine measures, and expects a ‘V’-shaped rapid recovery for the economy in Jamaica.
“There will be particular events that will bring a quick recovery in the short term. And then the economic factors will play out in the latter part. So, a vaccine would have an impact on demand, but also other measures have to be put in place to make travel safe,” he said.
The coronavirus has infected more than 55 million people worldwide and caused 1.33 million deaths. Jamaica has recorded around 230 deaths and 9,780 cases, while DomRep has had 134,000 cases and 2,286 deaths.
Large carrier American Airlines reinforced Munroe’s view, saying it’s leisure travellers who want tropical climates usually look towards Florida, the Caribbean or Cancun.
Mexico, in which Cancun is located, has had more than one million cases of the coronavirus and just under 98,900 deaths.
“The countries that make it easier for a customer to come to that country are the countries benefiting from that leisure traffic,” said Christine Valls, vice-president, Latin America, Caribbean and Florida Sales at American Airlines.
“Our customers want to travel. The Dominican Republic, as soon as they did away with testing requirements” they began to recover, he said, and now they are only down 27 per cent.
But: “We are down 55 per cent in the Caricom destinations,” Valls noted.
Colombia and Costa Rica have also done away with testing. Costa Rica, which has around two and a half times Jamaica’s population, has had 125,000 cases and 1,566 deaths, while Colombia, whose population is ten times bigger than Costa Rica’s, has had 1.2 million cases and 34,223 deaths.
Cruise ships ceased sailing in the region since the middle of March due to travel concerns arising from the pandemic. The industry will resume sailing in 2021 but Marie McKenzie, vice-president of global ports and Caribbean government relations at Carnival Corporation, declined to give an estimate on the passenger load projections.
McKenzie urged Caricom to streamline a set of protocols to facilitate large cruise operators, a sentiment supported by all forum panellists.
“We have asked the group of islands to consider a standard set of guidelines to enter the region,” McKenzie said. “So we are hoping that when we do start operating that there is clarity on standards to allow us to enter the destinations.”
Pre-COVID, Carnival brought 10 million tourists to the region.
