Leaders across the Eastern Caribbean have backed calls made last week by U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr. to urge the state of Florida to let cruise lines allow vaccination checks for Caribbean-bound passengers.
In a letter to the USVI leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica and Chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), expressed the subregional group’s appreciation for writing to Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.
Bryan is seeking special consideration in the Florida legislation to help revitalize the cruise industry in the Caribbean.
As increasing numbers of Americans receive Covid-19 vaccinations, Governor Bryan argued that ensuring the cruise industry reopens with vaccinated passengers is essential to the tourism economies of the Caribbean.
"We are deeply concerned – as you are – with the grave inherent difficulties for our effort to reignite livelihoods as we are among the most tourism dependent economies of the world," Skerrit said.
"For us as small island developing states whose economies are largely fueled by tourism, the vaccination status of industry players is essential to our strategy in the OECS to safeguard the lives of both our people and visitors and restore our economies."
