The American couple, on their first trip to Jamaica, tied the knot yesterday at Sandals Montego Bay, one of the first resorts to reopen after the country closed its borders in March as part of measures to contain the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The couple is among a group of first-come visitors who have forced Jamaican stakeholders to adjust to an entirely new arrival process, literally reducing the airport’s dependency on paper-based records.

Other tourism stakeholders say they have put their toes in the water to operate within the new travel space, with close to 8,000 workers at Sangster International looking to get back to work and staff in a few hotels happy to return to earning a salary, albeit fearful about contracting the virus from visitors who may be positive.

Revealing that already in the first quarter of the year, international tourism had recorded 67 million fewer arrivals and a loss of US$80 billion in exports, Bartlett told stakeholders on the digital platform during the briefing that the Americas was the third-hardest hit region, with international arrivals down by 15.2 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2019.

On social media, a number of visitors who experienced Jamaica’s COVID-19 border opening measures said they had to sanitise seven times before leaving the airport, and they were met on arrival by immigration and medical officers dressed in full PPEs (personal protective equipment) and Hazmat suits.