The Ministry of Tourism, International Transport and Maritime Initiatives has gone on a massive vaccination campaign which targets stakeholders in the cruise industry.
This campaign is being held as the country prepares to receive its first cruise ship call on June 6th, 2021.
There are about 943 stakeholders in the sector including vendors, hair braiders and taxi drivers.
“To-date 51 percent of our stakeholders have been vaccinated and so we are continuing this effort,” Tourism Minister Denise Charles disclosed recently on Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s Sunday talk show. “To-date we have trained over 200 people in respective fields on how to vend in a COVID environment or to interact with passengers in a COVID setting.”
Charles continued, “We also did a lot of training with the Caribbean Tourism Organization in customer service, in quality control and also, we exposed some of our stakeholders to e-transactions which is also going to be critical going forward.”
She said one cruise vessel has proposed that unvaccinated taxi drivers or tour operators, in order to be able to carry passengers or to go on a tour, should be required to get a PCR test weekly, “and that might be a big challenge.”
“Because you would have to book it; you will have to get the results on time and you would have to pay for the PCR test,” Charles pointed out. “But now all stakeholders have the opportunity to get vaccinated.”
“The vaccine is free,” she said and encouraged stakeholders to take advantage of it.
She further emphasized that in order for Dominica to receive more cruise calls, vaccination is key
“As you are well aware, every week we have to report how many people have been vaccinated on our island to our cruise partners and that makes a difference and determines how many calls a destination will get,” she revealed.
This she said is important to in order to get a good restart of tourism, in order to continue to promote Dominica as one of the safest, “it is already but in order to continue the promotion of our country as one of the safest destinations, so partners feel comfortable in recommending their residence to visit Dominica vaccination is the key.”
Dominica is expecting two cruise ship calls in June, 4 in July and it progresses.
No Vaccine, no work simple as that!
Having said that anyone seen uncle lately???
But who wrote that crap for Dennis Charles nou? I mean I cannot understand what she is saying. It’s not fluent at all and doesn’t sound like the language of Tourism minister.
Then she sounds as if herself and her government are not in control of the cruise ship industry but rather, she is there to pass on the demands and requirements of the cruise ship like she is their agent. Here is an example: “She said one cruise vessel has proposed that unvaccinated taxi drivers or tour operators, in order to be able to carry passengers or to go on a tour, should be required to get a PCR test weekly, “and that might be a big challenge.”
That’s just so embarrassing from a government minister. Why should a cruise ship dictate to the government that taxi drivers must be vaccinated or tested weekly? It should be the minister telling the cruise ship that their passengers must be vaccinated or they will not be able to leave the ship. Come on man that’s embarrassing as if is a children malay
She isnt a tourism minister. She is a woman they put in the position of Minister of tourism. She is course, abrasive, rude, just not hospitable or ladylike. Yes she can walk around in the wig and the heels but thats not being a lady. She isnt fit for the position as she isnt in tune with the industry or understand Dominica’s tourism product. Last time she just took a number out of a hat given to her by her “advisor” and said that is the number of stay overs we have to get by 2020whenever. But yet the supporting services and infrastructure and service culture to attract that kind of traffic is nowhere in place. We know how she got here though. Carry on.
She is an opportunist, nothing more nothing less.
“Tell the cruise lines we are the nature island, believe in natural health, wellness, and freedom of choice. ”
@ Fortune tella, do you understand what Nature island means? Do we have natural health, wellness and freedom in Dominica? Man Dominica is no longer the Nature Island as I believe the most appropriate name for Dominica today is THE FOOLS PARADISE of the Caribbean.
Is because of our known stupidity PM Skerrit and his foreign friends have hijacked our country. I mean imagine that even Dennis Charles agrees that we are fools that everything she said is like jokes you would hear on All fools day. Dennis Charles, FYI Dominica was one of the LAST Islands to close it’s borders for covid-19. So don’t take credit and make people believe is because of that Dominica doesn’t have covid. In fact the reason Skerrit closed the border was because one person from the east came down positive without a test upon entry and was spreading covid all over. Matt said he was on the plane and…
when are they getting more of the other vaccines and not the chinney one
@ fortune teller and those supporting your nonsense I hope you all are not covid-19 positive but you don’t know because you have not taken a test. You all are so ignorant and backward thinking. No wonder Skerrit has Dominica in that mess with so much ignorance.
Imagine a disease so dangerous, you don’t even know when you have it
– #MakeitMakeSense #Plandemic
I just can’t understand this minister of Tourism and her government you know. Here it is she boasting of how well the government did with the management of covid-19, by closing the boarder early to the point that there is zero community spread, but somehow they have taken a decision to open for cruise ship come June 6, and only 51% of stakeholders are vaccinated. In essence half of stakeholders have not been vaccinated! So why were they not proactive enough to ensure that those concerned are all vaccinated before opening the boarders? Another question I have for the minister and her government is, how could you boast of having such a good record against covid-19 and yet you cannot use that record to help encourage tourism and help grow the all but dead economy? Look, come June, South Africa, Australia and Pakistan coming to the Caribbean to play a series of cricket games and in this covid-19 era safety is of concern. Why then with such a good record we were not even considered?
You have to balance your strong emotions on the subject with the reality that a lot of Dominicans, some actually working on the ships, depend on the industry for their livelihoods.
Have some spine. have some moral, some ethics, some principles. Stand up for your people instead of using them. Tell the cruise lines we are the nature island, we believe in natural health and wellness, and freedom of choice. Tell them we don’t want them. They can take their giant covid petri dishes somewhere else.
Well said! Anything less is contrary to our claim of being the Nature Island of the Caribbean.
If cruise activities do resume in the upcoming months it will be largely for the benefit of the cruise ship companies and their financiers. To facilitate rescuing their investment we risk losing all we have previously gained in warding off the pandemic.
A small island with limited access is the safest place to be at this point in time.
Unfortunately that is unrealistic. Situations like these is exactly why they keep our population poor – so we have no choice but to bow down to outside agendas like these.
These is why our economy is intentionally kept dead, why they refuse to legalize weed, why they wont build infrastructure and make trade deals to monetize our resources. If they did, our people would not be financially destitute so we would not be at their mercy – they would not be in a position to force this poison (disguised as a vaccine) on our people.
Reality is, our leaders work for outside interests and regionally they all conform to this agenda. They gonna use their power to force this poison on us, then in ten years, when the havok caused is undeniable, they will act like they didn’t know that is the plan all along.