Vacationers visiting Antigua and Barbuda have greater than doubled for the reason that nation reopened V.C Hen Worldwide Airport to worldwide flights in June, the nation’s tourism minister stated this week.The twin-island Caribbean nation hosted 94,810 guests between January and August 2020, lower than half of the 202,946 land-based guests recorded in 2019, in keeping with Caribbean Tourism Group knowledge.Arrivals declined sharply after the March COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which drastically decreased airlift to the nation, stated Charles Fernandez, the nation’s minister of tourism.
North American vacationers have since led the nation’s return to tourism exercise, he stated. In August, 67 % of the 4,761 guests arriving in Antigua and Barbuda traveled from the US. The UK accounted for the next-largest group, with 21 % of August’s complete.MORE Vacation spot & Tourism
American Airways, Delta, JetBlue, British Airways, Caribbean Airways, interCaribbean Airways and Winair are presently providing flights to Antigua & Barbuda, and over “the next few months” Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, and Sunwing will launch further service, stated Fernandez.October lodge re-openings within the territory will embrace the Blue Waters Resort, Tamarind Hills, Hermitage Bay, Antigua Village, Galley Bay Resort, Carlisle Bay Resort, St. James’s Membership, The Nice Home, Antigua Yacht Membership Marina, Ocean Level Resort, Curtain Bluff Resort and Hawksbill, he stated.“As the destination opens up further, we [will] keep protective measures in place that have been designed to safeguard our residents and those who visit our shores,” Fernandez added.Vacationers to the territory are required to stick to COVID-19 protocols together with touring with proof of their destructive PCR take a look at and sporting facial masks when social distancing is just not attainable, he stated. Fernandez additionally famous that tourism enterprise protocols “in some instances mean reduced occupancy levels.”He added, “The Ministry of Tourism and the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority continue to carefully monitor the Covid-19 landscape within our main source markets.”
