by Linda Straker
- Over 200 cruise ships listed to arrive at Esplanade Cruise Ship Terminal
- Food court areas and Bruce Street Mall area will not be affected
- Mainly duty-free shops in Esplanade Mall will be affected
Tourism Minister Clarice Modeste said that the announcement by the management of the Esplanade Mall that only vaccinated people will be allowed in the mall on cruise ship days is in line with the “vaccinated only” bubble strategy for cruise ship visitor attractions.
“Even before the ships started arriving, we announced that visitors will only visit places where the people offering the service are vaccinated. That is why it is only appliable for cruise ships,” she said, pointing out that the food court areas and the Bruce Street Mall area where a few commercial businesses are operating will not be affected.
“It’s mainly the places in the Esplanade Mall such as the duty-free shops that will be affected and it’s only for a few hours.” She said the strategy is to ensure that both Grenadians and the visitors to the country are safe.
Grenada, when compared to some other regional territories such as St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda has low vaccinated acceptance among the population. The Covid-19 vaccination programme began in February 2021 and as of 5 December 2021 the total number of fully vaccinated people was 34,819 while partially vaccinated was 5,938.
Grenada’s cruise ship sector was among the hardest hit because of Covid-19. The island went into lockdown in March 2020 and this halt the cruise ship arrival until the 2021/2022 season which commenced in early November 2021.
At the start of the season, the Grenada Tourism Authority announced that Grand Anse Beach was not part of the safe bubble for visitors. Recently an agreement was reached between vendors and the National Taxi Association that will make the beach area close to the Grand Anse Craft and Spice Market a part of the bubble and on cruise ship days, only vaccinated vendors are allowed to trade.
Thousands of cruise ship visitors are expected to arrive in the country for the season which according to the schedule, shows that more than 200 cruise ships are listed to arrive at the Esplanade Cruise Ship Terminal.
They are inching their way forward slowly. Taking small steps toward Australia and China.
It seems as though facts don’t matter anymore. It’s like they are reading from Adolf Hitler’s playbook when he said ” A new age of magic interpretation of the world is coming, of interpretation in terms of the will and not of the intelligence. There is no such thing as truth either in the moral or the scientific sense.”
We are in that age that the evil Hitler spoke about! People need to fight this evil!
Deliberate apartheid – by an “independent” third world country. Unthinkable. Unbelievable.
Let’s hope they don’t infect us here on the island, despite fully vaccinated they are still catching covid and passing it on and cruise ships are great breeding place for a virus … https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/12/06/cruise-ship-covid-outbreak-new-orleans/
Low vaccination rates among Grenadians is more dangerous than fully vaccinated visitors walking around especially if the latter are masked when appropriate.