#TheCaribbean – November 23, 2020 — Millions of Americans are travelling despite warning from the Centers of Disease Control, not to do so due to the fear of a further surge of Covid-19 infections, and it is regional destinations which are benefitting in bookings.
According
to Travel Pulse, Mexico and the Caribbean are getting a healthy share of what was
the busiest travel weekend since the pandemic hit in March.
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The
Transportation Safety Authority, (TSA) reported three million airline travelers
between November 20-22; Sunday charting the highest numbers of airport security
screenings at 1,047,934.
Gatherings,
using public transportation and just moving around is putting the US at great
risk explains, the US top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who surmised
there will be an explosion of positives for the virus.
“What we’re doing now is going to be reflected two, three
weeks from now.”
West Bay Club balcony, Turks and Caicos
Though
down 23 and 29 percent for Thanksgiving and Christmas respectively, Mexico is
leading the region and happy with higher long-stay bookings when compared to
2019.
The
Turks and Caicos Islands has for the past two years been chronicling the same story. In fact, Grace Bay Resorts informs bookings
for their properties have been trending higher at Thanksgiving for the past two
years.
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“Thanksgiving
this year is looking good; better than many previous years. We find that people are booking in the month
for the month and so we have offered more flexible policies and extended stay
benefits. All Grace Bay Resorts have a
24-hour cancelation policy until December 22.
This week is actually sold out at Point Grace and West Bay Club and
Grace Bay Club is very close,” said executives in a recent event held to
announce Point Grace as Conde Nast Traveler Magazine’s #1 Reader’s Choice Award
Winner for 2020.
The
top prize for Point Grace was for the northern Atlantic Ocean region.
The
Turks and Caicos which sits southeast of The Bahamas have welcomed around 15,000
guests to the country since reopening to tourism on July 22, 2020.
Travel
data compiled by Adara explains longer haul trips are off the list for a Covid-wearied
public. Shorter flights and closer
destinations are top choices and among them are: Jamaica, Aruba, Puerto Rico, Dominican
Republic, Virgin Islands, The Bahamas and Haiti.
The surge in travel
by air and automobile for Americans coincides – frighteningly for officials –
with a surge in coronavirus cases. The US
has a positivity rate of 14 percent says The Washington Post and so far, 12.5
million Americans have been infected with the virus.
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#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Revenue from the Turks and Caicos’ Financial Services Sector will more than double in the next few years, if E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister gets his way. It ‘s one of the reasons the country is investing so much capital into getting off of the EU blacklist and becoming a secure trustworthy financial destination.
“The FSC’s revenues for 2020/21 was $10.5M— the figures for 2021/22, would be about similar,” he said. He further explained that $10.5 million from the FSC represented about 2.6 percent of the country’s 408.5-million-dollar revenue. Though it increased to $14 million in the 2021/22 financial year, finance is still a small fry compared to tourism or even stamp duties but that will change, says Saunders.
“My revenue goal for the Government by the year 2029 [or] the election after the next election – is $500M. By that time, I want the financial sector (FSC) revenues to represent at least 5% ($25M). So that’s my goal for the financial sector by 2029.”
This goal, should it be met, would increase the Government’s revenue by 100 million dollars, a significant increase in spending power for local upgrades and improvements for Turks and Caicos residents and visitors.
Saunders says it’s time for the TCI to diversify its sources of revenue to make sure that what happened in the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw residents out of a job for months, will not happen again. Tourism now makes up around 80 percent of the country’s GDP. The Minister of Finance wants to push that down to 60 or even 50 percent.
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Musicians from the New World Symphony will be in the Turks and Caicos in concert next month and residents are invited to attend in support of the future of Ashley’s Learning Center.
A fairly young orchestral academy based in Miami, the New World Symphony was launched in the 1980s by 1987, Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison,Carnival Cruises founder. From the 1500 applicants who vie for a spot each year, the symphony accepts around 35 music graduates annually for training fellowships.
A select few of those graduates will be in country on April 8th headlining at the Ashley’s Learning Center concert ‘We’re all in this together’. The concert which also feature local artistes will be held at Brayton Hall on Venetian Road from 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Tickets are available ON ISLEHELP $75 PER GENERAL SEAT $125 PER PREMIUM SEAT $195 PER GALLERY SEAT – with /FREFRESHMENTS.
For TICKET RESERVATIONs you can call: 649-341-2304 or email EVENTS@ASHLEYSLEARNINGCENTER.ORG
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – As the country moves toward new fiber optic connectivity, bridging the digital divide could be a game changer for healthcare and other family-friendly services in the TCI.
The power of universal digital connectivity across countries was one of the recurring themes when the United Nations in partnership with the Network of Afro Caribbean Women and the Diaspora recently explored how technology, innovation and education are being used to address women’s health issues.
The session aimed to highlight success stories and explore how those processes can be replicated to help women and girls globally including in The Turks and Caicos.
The UN explained that despite holding a 70 percent majority in healthcare jobs, women are poorly represented in leadership roles and subject to systemic gender inequalities that can make receiving healthcare challenging.
As delegates from Chile and Rwanda, who were also partners in the session, shared the upgrades to their countries’ systems that had significantly improved the level of care available to their women, digital connectivity was a deciding factor.
In Rwanda the health ministries have begun to use drones to deliver medicine, SMS messages to alert about health threats and a completely digitized health care that eliminates paper documents for pregnant women and makes records accessible to any doctor, immediately.
Rwandan delegate, Rose Rwabuhihi shared tips that countries should keep in mind when trying to implement new processes to benefit women and the wider community.
Partnership and sustainability are key factors to successful programs. She urged governments not to give up on projects or allow their partners to give up on them halfway.
Education campaigns to introduce residents to the technology: “We need to build skills and deepen the knowledge so they can use the innovations that have been put in place especially in rural areas.
Poor connectivity and technological issues have plagued the TCI for years especially in the islands outside of Providenciales. Government has substantially acknowledged this disparity in communications services and is investing in a new undersea cable to augment services in the Turks and Caicos.
The UNs perspectives can now ignite a fire for even more family friendly, digital services.
In fact,Senator Yasna Provoste Campillay, the Chilean Delegate explained how connectivity and videoconferencing had been used to reach the county’s women in the most rural of areas. Chile is a long country, its landmass spread lengthwise creating unique communication challenges. While healthcare in Chile is separated by length the Turks and Caicos islands are disconnected by the ocean and solutions that prove useful for the South American country could well be worth implementing locally.