And while education all over the world is imperilled by COVID 19, so is tourism. And the prognosis for a 2021 recovery got a lot more grim yesterday when it was announced that new US President, Joe Biden, has signed an executive order for travellers to quarantine for ten days upon arrival in the US.
And while this is not mandated, it's a recommendation from the Federal government, and it could be enough to deter tourists from traveling.
As it is, tourists are barely trickling into the country, so will the industry survive this latest hit? BTIA's president, Stewart Krohn, says it's a blow, but not a knockout punch:
Stewart Krohn, President, BTIA
"The way I read the executive order is that it recommends that people quarantine when they come back into the States, but that's just like every year when I have a check up with Dr Cuellar, he recommends that I not eat so many fry jacks. Do I follow his advice? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. but seriously I think if you look at the wording carefully, I think this is more of an attempt by the US authorities to scare people in not travelling abroad than it is to force then to quarantine into their homes for ten day or however many days it is after they return to the United States. Because does it make sense to require someone? Like what, the FBI is gonna follow you when you leave the airport? No, that doesn't make sense."
"It's one more blow that we're taking, it's not a knock out blow, we're resilient and we're just gonna have to tighten our belts, try to promote local tourism more, try to increase kind of an emergency aid measures for the industry. The good thing is that when people become vaccinated in the United States, they will eventually be more prone to travel so if you listen to the experts in the United States, like the famous Dr Fauci, he's talking about by summer or early fall, the US will kind of be almost back to normal. When the US and Canada and the rest of the world get almost back to normal, there is, we believe, a huge pent up demand for travel so you're gonna see, once kind of the all clear is approaching, you're gonna see a lot of reservations and following the reservations you're gonna see a lot of people coming to Belize and everywhere in the Caribbean and central America. The task for us in Belize is how do we position ourselves when that dam breaks open."
The executive order also requires face masks to be worn on airplanes, trains, buses and at airports in the US.
