As the normally bustling resort town of Negril remains shut down due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, hotelier, businessman and president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Richard Wallace says the town’s business people are looking towards the future with varying degrees of expectation.

“I think the reality is just setting in about what we are facing so there are some people who are kind of in desperation, and they’re panicking a little bit,” Wallace revealed. “But many are hopeful that we will come out better on the other side of this. Some people are in a more precarious position than others.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if many businesses don’t reopen but it would also depend on how long this lasts and the recovery afterwards,” he added. “Bear in mind we are going through a medical crisis now in terms of the coronavirus and trying to contain it, but then afterward we are going to have to deal with the recession that’s going to follow. It’s going to be tough on businesses.”

It is the period after the health crisis that Wallace believes will be critical to the survival of Negril’s economy, and the entrepreneur who owns The Boardwalk Village hotel and the Boardwalk Shopping Village in the western resort town emphasises that a proactive and innovative approach to tourism will be necessary to overcome the challenges resulting from the pandemic.

“I think we are looking at six months before tourism comes back,” Wallace speculated. “Some people are looking as far as March of next year. Others are looking into the winter season, which is November and December.”

SCREENING

The chamber of commerce president believes that screening for COVID-19 at the nation’s points of entry will be key to the revival of the tourism sector. That approach will be dependent on how rapidly a quick, accurate, reliable and widely available testing method for the disease can be developed. The creation of such testing is being fast-tracked in a number of countries around the world.

“If we can install those systems at our ports and airports and, just like it is a requirement to have a passport to enter a country, just like how you go through security checks, it will now be a norm or necessity to prove you are COVID-19 in order to enter the country,” Wallace explained. “It is almost like a visa. You get a pass.”

The businessman also referenced sanitation gateways such as the ones currently being used in the United Arab Emirates. These devices are basically tunnels through which people walk to be sprayed with non-toxic sanitisers.

“If we could install those at immigration stalls then little things like those would reassure people that we are taking things seriously and help to promote an image of safety and proactiveness towards the health crisis,” he pointed out.

Wallace is optimistic that with the right innovative approach to recovery, Jamaica’s tourism product can rebound.

“We got phone calls from people abroad calling to find out if we are open because they want to come,” he informed. “And we’re saying we can’t accommodate you because of the lockdown of the ports so as soon as that’s up, I know that there are people who will be coming – but I don’t know to what extent.”

On the question of the social and economic consequences of a long COVID-19 lockdown Wallace said he is very concerned about how the country will be able to respond to the potential impact.

CARE PACKAGES

“Already there are people turning up at our hotel asking for food,” the hotelier revealed. “A lady who used to work here and has not worked with us for a few months came all the way from St Elizabeth to ask for food. We gave her a care package.

“We are really concerned about that aspect of it when the months and weeks drag on and people spend off the money that they had when they were sent home,” he continued. “When there is no more money and no more food, what is going to happen?”

Wallace disclosed that the Negril Chamber of Commerce is doing its part to prepare for such an eventuality. The chamber is planning to create care packages of food for residents of Negril.

“We are going to plan it and time it properly because we want to do it when it is absolutely necessary and we are also limited in how much we can do,” he stated. “We are hoping to issue maybe a thousand care packages. but hen again, we are going to have to plan carefully the logistics of issuing it because we don’t want to have crowds. What if we have 5000 people turn up for the 1000 packages? What do we do? We are thinking about it carefully.”

Wallace suggested that there are over 12,000 people who work directly in tourism in Negril alone. Many of them are now facing varying degrees of adversity.

SKELETON STAFF

“There are some hotels who were unable to do anything for their staff,” he stated. “What I am doing is rotating, giving every staff member, whoever wants to come in, at least a couple days per week so everybody is still getting some salary.”

The chamber president noted that the extent to which hoteliers can help some staff depends upon whether or not they can still afford to carry out some basic operations.

“Most hotels still have to have a skeleton staff, because you have to keep the place looking OK and carry out maintenance,” he said. “I’ve been told that some of the hotels do have guests in-house. There are some guests who decided to stay in Jamaica and ride out the pandemic here; they felt safer here than going back to their countries. So a few of the hotels still have a few rooms occupied so they still have staff, but most likely they are closed to the public.”

In the face of the challenges facing the Negril community, Wallace is insistent that the town’s business people and entrepreneurs must be flexible and able to adapt to whatever new realities are presented by the post-COVID-19 era in order to survive and thrive moving forward.

“What we predict is going to happen is that a lot of the changes will be permanent going forward, so businesses will have to adapt to the new normal of what will be post-COVID-19 because it may very well change behaviour patterns permanently,” Wallace said. “People may not want to be close to other people and they may not want to be in crowds anymore.

“We are in that type of business where hotels have people hanging out at the pool, hanging out in the bar and in the dining room and this may change, so we have to be prepared to change with the change and that is how we are going to survive. Because if we don’t we are going to get left behind, so we have to start thinking about and watching the trends and keeping abreast of what is going to be the new normal and adapting our businesses to fit that.

“That is what I would like to say to our Negril Chamber of Commerce members out there. That is what we have to be prepared to do.”