Much is riding on the success of the island’s winter tourist season which officially began yesterday and runs until mid-April.We are aware of the untold damage inflicted on the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic from mid-2020 into late 2021, before we began to witness a rebound in international tourism and travel.In fact, at the beginning of 2020, the local economy was set for a major recovery after several years of contraction and anaemic economic activity, when the pandemic turned everything on its head.As Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes reported, the tourism sector was “buoyant and the prospect of substantial new private sector investments were on the horizon”.The pandemic wiped out many of the economic and social gains and traumatized many households not only through illness and death, but financial ruin.
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It was not so long ago, a year to be exact, that the country engaged in a raging debate over the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. Some were strongly for taking the vaccine while others were vehemently against it.In many instances, those against were made to feel like Public Enemy #1. This was so not only in Barbados but the world over. The marginalisation and discrimination towards those who refused to take the jab was evident through loss of rights, loss of jobs, loss of friends and in some cases loss of family. Entry to many countries were denied to the unvaccinated.Life as we knew it was turned upside down when Government, like the rest of the world, embarked on a national drive to get people vaccinated.On realising that further engagement was needed a series of townhall meetings “to inform and educate the public” started but this exercise proved to be bloodier than the social media battles which were already in tow.
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