Businesses in this country, particularly those in the restaurant, entertainment and related enterprises, must certainly be breathing easier with Government’s decision to lift the midnight to 5 a.m. curfew.One of the few remaining COVID-19 mitigation measures imposed by the state to blunt the viral illness, the curfew was deemed effective at the time. However, questions were being raised about the value of continuing to restrict people’s movement for just five hours at night.Given the enormous turnaround in our tourism arrivals, at least among long-stay visitors, it was important not to undermine the pent-up demand for travel by diminishing the quality of the Barbados experience by insisting that tourists needed to be inside their hotels or apartments by midnight.We are a tourism-dependent country facing stiff global competition, with every market aggressively vying for its share after two years of stagnation. And so, it is important for the country to be positioned as a destination that has carefully planned and is open for business.At the same time, we know all is not well and that there still exist some barriers to an even more successful tourism rebound.
