Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins, and owner of the Crane Resort, Paul Doyle, during a tour of the facility. (C. Pitt/BGIS)
The ‘strict’ COVID-19 protocols the Government of Barbados has implemented are beneficial not only for locals but for visitors to the island as well.
This assertion was made by Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins, during a guided tour of the Crane Resort by owner Paul Doyle and Chief Marketing Officer, Annmarie Thompson.
Minister Cummins emphasised that the creation of a safe space here was equally for Barbadians and visitors. She stressed that following the protocols, that is, sanitising hands, wearing masks and social distancing, has so far been able to keep the country safe, and, with everyone’s help and cooperation, would continue to do so.
Expressing the hope that Barbados’ protocols would be a “major selling point for our tourism product”, Senator Cummins stated: “…One of the key things that we really want to be able to say out there, our health officials have done a phenomenal job of keeping us safe; they have done a tremendous job of capturing, perhaps I would want to say 95 to 99 per cent of all cases at the border.
“And the reason why there’s only that differentiation is because we have been seeing some persons coming in initially with their negative test, taken 72 hours prior to arrival. And then when there are retested, then they’re testing positive, but then they’re still captured. And so, that is really a significant accomplishment for a small country like Barbados, with the kind of resources that we have, we do not have the kind of infection rates that we’re seeing in other places. And that really is a credit to our health officials.”
Owner of the Crane Resort, Paul Doyle expressed his support for the COVID-19 protocols in place and stated: “We are in such a wonderful position here, because the Government and the people of Barbados have done a great job really killing this thing and to have zero spread in the community is amazing.”
He added: “It gives people a lot of comfort …so there’s a whole lot of people that just need to de-stress and get into an environment like we have in Barbados, where you don’t need to fear for your life…and we need to sell that…because it’s really special and obviously we need to keep it that way.”
Also attending the tour were Head of Global Markets at Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), Petra Roach; BTMI’s Chief Product Development Officer, Marsha Alleyne; Director of Business Development – Crane Resorts, John Doyle; and members of the media.
