From January 7th Canada has required all residents and travellers entering from the Caribbean provide proof of a negative Covid-19 PCR test before their departure.
6 January 2021
Jamaica minister of tourism,
Edmund Bartlett, has led a series of heartfelt tributes to Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, founder of Sandals Resorts International, who died earlier this week.
Stewart died in the United States at the age of 79 after a short illness.
Bartlett expressed his deep sadness at the passing and said: “Butch was truly an icon and innovator, philanthropist and perhaps the greatest marketer tourism has ever seen.
“Sandals is indeed the largest and most enduring brand created by a Caribbean entrepreneur in tourism and arguably the world today and the standard by which luxury all-inclusive is judged.
“I hail him as a father, leader, benefactor, and the greatest tourism entrepreneur of our time.
31 December 2020
The president of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) has predicted the Caribbean will see a return of tourism to the region “faster than many parts of the world.
Pablo Torres said this was thanks to the protocols and partnerships implemented throughout the region to help lessen the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Averring 2021 would be a year of recovery, Torres declared: “Tourism is our key to recovery, to restoring the livelihood of thousands of employees in our industry, to reopening our doors, and welcoming our guests.”
In addition to replenishing tax revenues to cash-strapped governments, Torres noted that a tourism revival would refresh and renew “the minds, bodies and spirits of millions of travellers who will discover that the Caribbean is the best place on earth to recover from the ravage of this pandemic”.