Thought of the Day - November 23 - Dreadlock Holiday

Last month Gail and I were toying with the idea of taking a trip to Jamaica this November. However, we quickly changed our mind, less about the situation in Jamaica, more that we were unlikely to get there.

In October reports started to come out about the bait-and-switch plans that Canadian airlines were using to stay afloat. Basically they take your payment for bookings on flights that will never take off. Air Canada cancelled 27,000 flights in November or 70%, while WestJet slashed their schedule by about 12,400 flights or 68%. Air Transat scrapped 63 per cent of its flights for November and Sunwing had a similar figure. That said, WestJet has started to accept "applications" for refunds; there is little news from the other airlines.

While you can't blame them for testing the waters - if there is an overwhelming demand they probably fly - but without a guaranteed refund option this is pretty one-sided.

Anyway, back to Jamaica.

Jamaica's air and sea borders are open to all foreign travellers. Jamaica is launching the “Jamaica Cares” mandatory travel insurance program for all non-resident visitors into the country this month (the fee ($40-$50) will be included in the authorization process). In order to minimize the risk to the island from foreign travellers, Jamaica has also established “Resilient Corridors”, two extended coastal regions that encompass roughly 80 percent of its tourist areas and only one percent of its resident population. In addition, Jamaica’s minister of Health and Wellness, says that stiffer penalties are coming for persons, who breach the COVID-19 restrictions. Under the Disaster Risk Management Act, persons who refuse to follow the established orders and protocols, including curfews and stay-at-home orders, can be fined up to $1 million or six months in prison.

I also see that the Republic of Korea has just donated $300,000 worth of testing to Jamaica, the second such donation (the last was via Korea East West Power who now owns 40% of the Jamaican monopoly power utility). While I fear a good percentage of these tests will not be directly be used by the residents, rather they are part of a stockpile for tourist screening options, I guess indirectly the island-residents will see the trickle-down effect of a growth in tourism.

As we predicted Jamaica has been doing fairly well compared to most as of late (overall cases per capita are less than half that of Canada and deaths less than a third):

Well, I hope we can enjoy a vacation there next year. Oh, and thereby be able to help out some of the people who directly rely on their tourism industry.

Cheers

Cliff