The Minister of Tourism, Denise Charles, has highlighted the potential losses recorded in the industry following the threats of COVID-19. Dominica, however, is not the only country potentially impacted with the effects of coronavirus, major economies around the world are suffering from reduced businesses and financial losses.
The tourism minister said the tourism sector will be most impacted with coronavirus because travels will be disrupted, hotel reservations cancelled, tour guides jobless, resorts closed, and cruises turned away. She added that about 2.4 million people directly employed in the tourism industry in the Caribbean will lose over $60 billion since tourism earnings contribute to 15.5% of the region’s development.
“We have seen a greater impact on air travel,” Honourable Charles said. “There has been a decline for cruise travel so we will see how that goes in the next few months as people are encouraged to stay home and avoid travel at this time. We just had a few major resorts open. There have been cancellations. The hotels were expecting some large groups over the next three months and they have had major cancellations.”
Director of Economics at the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. Justin Ram, also said at a UWI conference earlier this week that tour operators and taxi drivers as well as tour guides and language interpreters are feeling the indirect impacts of coronavirus. Many people who depend on tourists for their incomes are temporarily out of jobs or experiencing low patronage, and hoteliers are also feeling the bite because they have to pay staff even when bookings are low or non-existent.
This article is copyright © 2020 DOM767
