Caribbean islands encouraged to strengthen their lagging vaccine access and uptake

The Caribbean region’s tourism vulnerability to the pandemic will continue to impact its full economic recovery, as source markets increasingly restrict travel due to a fast spreading and little-understood Omicron variant.

As a result, the islands of the Caribbean heavily dependent on tourism are being encouraged to strengthen their lagging vaccine access and uptake. Being among the most tourism-dependent in the world, the Caribbean region was predicted to be among the hardest hit by the pandemic’s global fallout.

In fact, the World Travel & Tourism Council had projected the economic impact of COVID-19 on the islands to result in a US$42-billion loss in gross domestic product (GDP) and 1.9 million jobs lost in 2020. With the actual fall offs were slightly off those projections, the region recovered faster than any other part of the world in 2021.

Latest data showed that Caribbean travel and tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product is expected to rise more than 47 per cent this year, while the global economy will see a 37 per cent increase in contribution from travel and tourism. The data also point to advanced bookings of hotel stays and airline ticketing for 2022, which augurs well for the recovery process.

Numbers show recovery in the order of over 70%

The numbers are showing a potential recovery of more than 70 per cent of 2019 levels. This was the highlight that the Caribbean Tourism Hotel Association shared during its 2022 winter outlook report.

Though the region is recovering well the forecast also comes on the heels of the Omicron variant’s emergence in late November and the outlook doesn’t account for the impact and repercussions from a potential fresh round of global travel restrictions, which are unfolding by the day in source markets such as Canada and Europe as infections rise at a rapid pace.

Arising from this ticketing to the Caribbean experienced a drop for a handful of top destinations following the Omicron announcement, data on holiday travel ticketing from ‘ForwardKeys’ shows. Destinations including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Aruba and the Bahamas all experienced a decrease in bookings between late November and early December, as compared to 2019 levels.

At least nine destinations are expected to surpass 2019 levels between December 17 and January 2 as of current Christmas time international flight confirmations.

Too early to assess impact of Omicron

Analysts say it’s too early to determine how much Omicron might impact those plans and additional flights going into 2022 given the fluidity of the pandemic, particularly if re-entry rules mount for travelers or if the variant proves harmful to the region’s destinations with low COVID vaccination rates.

As governments in major source markets such as Canada, which strongly advised against overseas travel on Wednesday and parts of Europe continue to weigh tougher restrictions amid a rapidly spreading variant, the Caribbean’s tourism rebound in 2022 hangs in the balance.