by Linda Straker
- Not easy task to accommodate cruise ship passengers through bubble format on beach
- Several vendors at market are vaccinated and few who are not vaccinated
- Tourism Minister’s office in discussion with vendors to identify a solution
- 205 cruise ships expected for 2021/2022 season
Cruise ship passengers who arrived onboard the first cruise ship for the 2021/2022 season on Tuesday, 9 November 2021 were not allowed to visit Grand Anse Beach nor the Grand Anse Craft & Spice Market, because neither are part of the bubble attractions following the Covid-19 health protocols.
“It is not part of the bubble,” Tourism Minister Clarice Modeste said in the weekly post-Cabinet briefing, acknowledging that it will not be an easy task to accommodate arriving cruise ship passengers through a bubble format on the beach.
Modeste said that her office is in discussion with vendors at the market to identify a solution for the months ahead.
Sharing the main challenge of why the Craft & Spice Market on Grand Anse Beach is not part of the tourist attraction bubble for the season, Barry Collymore, Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority said that it’s a matter of vaccination of the vendors.
“For the people who can do business, we want to find a way for them to do business,” he said while pointing out that there are several vendors at the market who are vaccinated and few who are not vaccinated.
“We are asking them (passengers) to come to Grenada fully vaccinated and they are expecting to interact with persons who are fully vaccinated,” he said as he acknowledges that those who are vaccinated should not be deprived of conducting businesses. “It does not make sense for the people who are vaccinated,” he said.
“We are going to try and find a way for them to be able to conduct their business and we are going to work with the others to try to see if we can get them to comply as quickly as possible,” said Collymore.
“People disembarking from ships will not be allowed to wander around on their own. There will be guided tours with trained tour guides, vaccinated tour guides in a totally vaccinated environment. We are going to the fully vaccinated sites and the sites that are easier managed,” Collymore said when asked about the measures that will be put in place to protect the passengers.
“The bubbles will guide them as to where they can and cannot go. They will be directed to sites that are in fact vaccinated areas,” said the GTA chairman. A bubble is an organised tour so that passengers disembarking the cruise ship will be guided. They will not be allowed to roam freely or allowed to get off the ship and go anywhere they feel like around the country.
Grenada is expected to welcome 205 cruise ships for the 2021/2022 season which will run from November 2021 to May 2022.
Confused. Is the Grand Anse Craft Market opened? I stay in Grenada for 3 months, will I have to stay in some ‘beach bubble ‘ or can I sit and walk where I want?
this is only about cruise ships, few of which even stay overnight, let alone 3 months. This is saying that everything cruise passengers do on-island will be chaperoned within a vaccinated bubble.
Was this cruise ship given permission to land in grenada before the resumption of cruise ship visits Was announced seems to me that the cruise ship owners must have had an indication that they would be able to land weeks ago. The government must know something the rest of us don’t
Being vaccinated does not stop you catching covid or passing it on… it is not scientific to blame the unvaccinated… may God bless Grenada…. https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-irish-county-with-99-7-vaccination-rate-has-highest-covid-case-rate
This is stupidity. The Market is OUTSIDE. There are never huge groups inside at anytime in the shops. We went through 2020 with MASKS, sanitizer, distancing and did well.
I STRONGLY DISAGREE that all the Vendors must be fully vaccinated. Why are you allowing these tourists on the beaches at all then?? Who WILL benefit from the cruise ships and who will you KEEP IN POVERTY???
When I get back I expect to be able to visit a fully functioning Market. Give the Tourists the OPTION of where they want to visit or shop. Wearing masks, sanitizing should be sufficient. I am responsible for my safety also. I double mask at all times.
So let these Vendors earn some money for food. Post a symbol showing vaccinated or not and let the Tourist decide where they want to do business.
You’ll crazy. If the vaccinated are secure in their vaccine whats the problem? If you contract covid from someone wouldn’t a vaccinated person have “few/mild” symptoms? So what’s the fear? Following the protocols (7 day quarantine, sanitizing, face mask) when there was no vaccine kept us far more protected than the so called vaccine. Since vaccine arrived we had the most cases and deaths because people have now stopped following the same so called science that once helped us. Smh
The US is opening up because of vaccines – US vaccine rates 70% fully immunized – GRENADA hovering around 33%. The choice is yours – choose wisely or pay the consequences. Once science is proven the rest of the arguments are mumbo jumbo hocus focus . Science wins all else loses
Seems like getting vaccinated makes one more vulnerable to get COVID than if one is not. It’s true that we were better off just wearing masks, sanitizing and unsocial-distancing. Vaccinated persons do get infected and spread the disease same as unvaccinated persons who may get infected. That is fact. The only claimed advantage that can be attributed to getting vaccinated is that one may not get very sick to death if one got infected. That being the case and bearing in mind that taking the vaccine comes with many risks, then it should be one’s one choice as to whether one should or shouldn’t take one of those vaccines. It is wrong. It is evil. It is wicked to impose any condition; via mandate or coercion to get one to take it.
Sorry, but that’s incorrect. Prior to delta, vaccinated people did not appear to carry the virus at all. Delta was a game-changer, as we all know, but breakthrough cases are still uncommon. The most recent numbers show unvaxxed people are 6x more likely to catch (and thus, spread) covid than a vaccinated person. Also, given Grenada’s low vax rate, unvaccinated vendors pose a much higher risk of an outbreak (it’s not about the tourists but our hospital capacity, etc.). Here’s a decent summary, with links to the original research I mentioned: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/11/vaccinated-spread-the-coronavirus/620650/?utm_source=pocket_mylist