{"id":111672,"date":"2020-06-06T18:57:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T22:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=111672"},"modified":"2020-06-06T18:57:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T22:57:28","slug":"commentary-reopening-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-reopening-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENTARY: Reopening Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Basil Springer<\/div>\n
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“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Galatians 5:13-14<\/strong><\/div>\n
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In the face of an unstable mutating virus and the uncertainty of an effective vaccine,\u00a0global\u00a0public health protocols have been sensibly advocating the importance of a healthy immune system, personal hygiene, physical distancing, wearing masks, testing widely, contact tracing, patient isolation and treatment.\u00a0Caribbean countries have been augmenting the\u00a0facilities, staffing, equipment and supplies at their treatment centers.<\/div>\n
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Coupled with this, in the Caribbean, we are\u00a0rolling out phased “back to work” protocols to stimulate the restarting of our economies. Let us hope that the general population will be law-abiding and give these management approaches a chance to contain community spread of the virus.<\/div>\n
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The real challenge comes when the national borders are reopened to airline and later, cruise travel, both of which are drastically revising their sanitization and protection protocols to reduce risk and ease travelers’ concerns. The new passenger experience is likely to be totally different from what we have grown accustomed.<\/div>\n
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It would seem sensible, for a region with a uniformly low incidence of the pandemic infection, to reopen its borders with a focus on\u00a0LIAT with an entirely new value proposition and incentive to serve the region.\u00a0Firstly,\u00a0for intra-Caribbean airline passenger\u00a0traffic\u00a0to satisfy the significant pent up demand for regional travel\u00a0and, secondly, as a connector for international airlines with which they have interline agreements.<\/div>\n
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To facilitate this, the governments and the private sector would need to create user-friendly enabling environments. Governments must drastically reduce the air travel related taxes by engaging in a policy of “tax the outputs, not the inputs” to give the regional airline industry an opportunity to grow from strength to strength. The regional and international private sector must inject capital and provide services in support of a revitalized regional travel industry.<\/div>\n
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The public health protocol may have to change to “test, travel, test, trace, isolate and treat”, as we strive to further contain contagion throughout the community.<\/div>\n
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Travel to the Caribbean\u00a0should first accommodate\u00a0regional, business and medical travel; and\u00a0then\u00a0tourists from select countries. The country\u00a0and city\u00a0selection will depend on the success of pandemic containment.\u00a0How well we manage these reopening phases will determine the rate of economic recovery and whether we can avoid a second wave.<\/div>\n
\nVillas, timeshares and hotels that have strong sanitization and distancing protocols\u00a0may be the\u00a0accommodations that we promote\u00a0as we await the return of traditional sources of visitor supply.\u00a0But as the experts have opined, it will not be business as usual for a long time.\u00a0The passion that we have for opening our borders to international travel therefore must be tempered by patience and perseverance.<\/div>\n
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by Basil Springer “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Galatians 5:13-14 In the face of an unstable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCOMMENTARY: Reopening Borders - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/commentary-reopening-borders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COMMENTARY: Reopening Borders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Basil Springer “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. 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