St. Kitts has announced it will reopen its borders to international tourism, including cruise ships, in October 2020.
St. Kitts to Reopen to Cruise Ships
The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is reopening its borders to international tourism, which also includes cruise ships. The announcement was made by Dr. The Honorable Prime Minister Timothy Harris but no specific date is yet known as different sectors of the port and different regions in the country will likely have a phased-in reopening.
This means commercial flights and vessels carrying international passengers will be able to resume operations to the Caribbean nation. This is good news for the cruise industry in the United States which has been hit hard by continuing extensions on suspending operations.
Lindsay Grant, the Federation’s Minister of Tourism, said:
“The St Kitts Tourism Authority, the Nevis Tourism Authority, and the Ministry of Tourism, in conjunction with the ministries of health and civil aviation, is conducting […] training exercises for over 5,000 tourism industry stakeholders, including hotels at no cost to them,” Approximately 300 individuals have already been trained, he noted.
The government is working with the relevant agencies to make sure when the phased-in opening of the borders will do so safely making sure there is no risk of a COVID-19 outbreak. At the moment the island nation has no cases of the virus.
This comes as two Royal Caribbean cruise ships have all ready been approved to dock at Zante, which will also include allowing 140 crew members to disembark. However, those crew members will need to quarantine for 14 days first and must receive a negative test result to ensure there is no spread of the virus.
Also Read: Caribbean Port Permits Two Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships to Dock
There will also be strict health measures in place at the port when cruise ships do eventually begin calling to Basseterre, St. Kitts, as part of a regular itinerary with passengers. Even if the borders do reopen it’s not guaranteed that cruise ships will quickly start making visits as cruise lines in the United States have so far suspended operations until November 2020.
Unfortunately, not all Caribbean destinations are aiming to reopen to cruise ships so fast as we’ve already posted about Grand Cayman banning cruise ships until 2021.
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