Today marks the fourth and final phase of the Dutch side’s gradual de-escalation from the COVID-19 lockdown. Not much will change, as only a small group of activities had still been prohibited.
The resumption of tourism is obviously needed to really get the economy going again. That can be said for practically the entire region and it is interesting to see how other destinations are handling this matter.
Aruba has special relevance for St. Maarten, as they are both Dutch Caribbean countries with a dominant hospitality industry that to a great extent depends on the North American market. So, while Curaçao that gets mostly Dutch visitors can perhaps suffice with leisure travel mainly from the Netherlands and hold off on supposedly “higher risk” guests from the US and Canada, that is much more difficult for its two sister islands.
Parliament President Rolando Brison was therefore on the mark when at the end of last week’s virtual Inter-Parliamentary Consultation IPKO he asked kingdom partners not to close the borders with Aruba and St. Maarten when they let US tourists back in. Aruba plans to do so for Canadians per July 1 and Americans per July 10.
The government in Philipsburg had set a June 15 deadline for itself to decide on the issue and generally intended to start early next month with surrounding islands, then add Europe and finally North America. One can certainly understand being extra cautious also because of the relatively large number of coronavirus-related deaths on the Dutch side.
However, the clock is ticking as the negative social impact of the pandemic progressively worsens. The local business community including resorts but also airlines, tour operators, travel agents and the like need to know when what will happen to prepare.
In Aruba they already do and even came up with US $15 per day corona insurance for visitors in case they have the virus to pay for their quarantining and treatment. That puts them ahead of the game and St. Maarten must take care not to fall too far behind.
