Dear Editor,

As the world struggles to combat the effects of COVID-19, Jamaica has, over these last six months, emerged as a leader in the fight against this virus. Across the world, the decisiveness of the actions taken by our government is being hailed as an example to be followed.

As the health and safety of our population must always be our priority, we are proud that Jamaica was the first to unveil COVID-19 Resilient Corridors, a concept developed to protect our citizens whilst restarting a much-needed phased tourism recovery through tightly managed and enforced protocols in controlled geographic spaces. To date, three such corridors are in operation:

a) The North Coast (seaward side) from Negril to Port Antonio;

b) The South Coast with specific locations from Bluefield’s Bay in Westmoreland, eastward to Treasure Beach in St. Elizabeth and Mandeville; and

c) New Kingston and its environs.

After extensive stakeholder consultation, to include tourism players in both the public and private sectors, the Ministry of Health & Wellness, the security forces, local municipalities etc, a considerable amount of time, money and resources were put into implementing robust COVID-19 prevention protocols, which were and continue to be subjected to strong regulatory inspections.  

The licensed hotels, attractions and tourist transport operators undertook a collective approach to construct these corridors and ensure they became trusted and protected zones comprising approximately 80 per cent of the island’s tourism businesses.  

Foreign or local visitors staying on the corridors are now without doubt experiencing the safest vacation spots anywhere in the world. The guaranteed use of personal protective equipment, world leading sanitisation and physical distancing protocols are a way of life and have, since we reopened our tourism sector on June 15, proven to be extremely effective barriers for transmission of the virus, while at the same time allowing us to restart not only our sector, but giving Jamaica’s economy a chance to stave off a depression that is more than possible due to COVID-19.  

We firmly believe in the collective responsibility of everyone living by the motto, “SEE SOMETHING. SAY SOMETHING. DO SOMETHING.”

With tourism’s fallout we’ve lost 50 per cent of the country’s much-needed foreign exchange earnings, pressuring the Jamaican dollar to an all-time low of J$150 to US$1. This will inevitably have adverse effects on prices of most consumer goods including food and other services such as transportation for us as citizens. The negative effects on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are already being felt, with even greater economic pain expected due to the loss of robust tourism activities.

With almost 350,000 direct and indirect workers depending on tourism, we must do everything in our power to safely bring them back to work. We do this for them, their families and the country’s economic well-being.   

In the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) order dated July 31, the Government allowed, as of August 7, for tourists to leave their COVID-19 approved hotels, using similarly approved tourist transportation to visit approved attractions – all the while remaining within the Resilient Corridors connected by point-to-point protocols, which ensure that these visitors will not exit the corridors into the general population prior to them completing the required 14-day quarantine period.  Given the success thus far, since June 15 of our operations on the Resilient Corridors, we are surprised and disappointed that in an update to the DRM on August 5, the Government reversed the order, once again restricting tourists to just their hotel grounds.

With all the public/private partnership on this project to date, along with success so far on the beginnings of bringing our tourism workers back to work, we cannot understand why this decision has been taken.  Even a cursory look at Jamaica’s positive cases to date proves that, even though not perfect, the combined efforts of so many of our sector have been deliberate while careful in this COVID-19 environment.

The coronavirus threat is far from over and the spike in cases around the island is both unfortunate and alarming; however, the spike did not occur within the Resilient Corridors.  We must not allow these sophisticated and professionally managed corridors to be off-limits when they have proven themselves to work.  These geographical locations and systems are integral to the advancement of the island’s tourism. In fact, the corridors have become the basis for which travellers are buying vacations to the island because it gives them confidence knowing that they will not be isolated to simply a hotel. 

Instead, we must firmly address and penalise those travellers who are not adhering to the quarantine guidelines, no matter who they are.  It is us Jamaicans — resident and diaspora — who are flouting the rules and putting our fellow Jamaicans at risk. We firmly agree with the Government taking strong action against those who gather unlawfully in the hundreds at rivers, beaches and at unauthorised entertainment events.  It seems to us that due to misbehaviour of our nationals ignoring quarantine and gathering rules, a broad brush has been unfairly used by the government shutting down the ability for tourists to visit licensed and COVID-19 approved attractions, again sending thousands of workers off the job, including tour and taxi operators.

The COVID-19 Resilient Corridor Committee is a true joined up effort, with the members of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association, the Association of Jamaican Attractions and key government stakeholders. We the private sector stakeholders  stand together in our support for the safest operations of our tourism sector on behalf of not only the businesses in the sector, but because Jamaica needs these business to succeed so that country can succeed in this difficult time.

The COVID-19 Resilient Corridor is a revolutionary idea that now represents positive proof of concept. It works!  We call on the Government to trust the corridors to work as designed, with the strongest of COVID-safety protocols, so that our workforce can continue to come back to work safely and to give the tourism sector a further chance to earn the desperately needed foreign exchange for the country.

Sincerely,

John G BylesChairman, COVID-Resilient Corridor

Omar RobinsonPresident, Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association

Marilyn BurrowesPresident, Association of Jamaican Attractions