Mexico’s popular tourism destination of San Miguel de Allende has begun what tourism officials are calling “Phase 0” of its COVID-19 “reactivation plan,” which for now is limited to the local population.
The first phase includes activation of the local economy for local residents, and officially begins June 1.
The city will see most of its business infrastructure reopen, including markets, eateries, shopping centers, offices and public transport.
Hotels, bars, cantinas and clubs will not yet reopen, however.
The reopening comes with a slate of hygiene requirements for businesses, from international-grade sanitation protocols (including shoe-cleaning) to provision of face masks to hourly disinfecting of public spaces.
Access to the city has been closed since March to non-residents.
“We still haven’t opened the doors to our visitors,” said the city’s mayor, Villarreal García. “San Miguel is not opening to tourism, not yet; We will do it gradually. Gradually and responsibly, as the number of infections marks us.”
St Croix might be your best bet if you’re thinking about heading to the U.S. Virgin Islands soon after the U.S. territory officially reopened to visitors on June 1.
Of the three islands in the USVI — St Thomas, St Croix, and St John — St. Croix has the most hotels currently open, including such prominent properties as the Hotel Caravelle, The Buccaneer, Sand Castle on the Beach, and The Fred, among others.
In fact, St Croix is the rare Caribbean destination with more hotels open than closed.
“Like most Americans, we are cautiously optimistic about re-opening the territory to tourism,” says Topher Swanson, co-owner of The Fred, an 11-room boutique hotel in Frederiksted. “Although not scientifically proven to prevent COVID-19, many of the things that people come to the Caribbean to enjoy — wide open spaces, fresh sea air, plenty of UV sunlight, etc. — are things that many people naturally believe can be used to fight the spread of COVID-19, so I can’t think of a healthier place to be right now.”
(It’s worth noting that St. John has had just two positive COVID-19 cases though May 19, versus 38 in St. Thomas and 29 in St. Croix.)
Visitors who come to the USVI in June will thus be among the first to experience the “new normal” of tourism in the post-COVID world.
Buffets and live music will be banned at restaurants and bars, for example. Children’s recreational areas will remain closed. Mini-bars in hotel rooms will be shut down. Employees and guests will be required to wear masks in public areas.
Hotels will be required to retain guest information for contact tracing if an outbreak of illness occurs. And any guests who show symptoms of COVID-19 will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.
“Our goal to ensure our visitors have a wonderful and safe experience when they visit the USVI,” said Lisa Hamilton, president of the USVI Hotel & Tourism Association. “We have extensive safety protocols to ensure this. Visitors can enjoy restaurants, bars, beaches, boat rentals, activities, and attractions. We are temperature checking via thermal imaging on arrival and this will be communicated to [visitors].”
Protestant Cay in St Croix.
“Likewise, we are testing employees as they come in to work each day and ensuring proper sanitation procedures are followed while on the job,” said The Fred’s Swanson. “We typically allow more than a day between guests in each room at the hotel so that they have a chance to heat up with the A/Cs off before new guests arrive.”
The Emerald Beach Resort in St Thomas.
“In general we have stepped up extra cleaning and let me just say … we’re no longer trying to be subtle nor quick with our cleaning efforts,” he said. “If needed, we are prepared to begin screening guests with touchless thermometers and wiping down suitcases with sanitization cloths, but so far that has not been included in the recommendations that we have received.”
Under the guidelines that will be in place when visitors begin returning, masks will be required in order to receive service at restaurants, bars, hotels, and other businesses.
Social distancing mandates will include six-foot seating separation at dining establishments as well as poolside.
The Breakers Roar tiki bar in St Croix is back open.
“All furnishings have been moved at least 6 feet apart to provide for the greatest amount of social distancing, and we have sectioned off the pool from our restaurant and bar in order to be sure that we can easily maintain the recommended 50 people maximum per area,” said Swanson. “Fortunately, guest volume is typically lower in the summer months so that allows even more opportunity to really spread things out.”
Whether or not to reopen on June 1 is a decision left to individual hotels and restaurants. A number have chosen to remain more cautious. The Bolongo Bay Beach Resort says it won’t open its door to non-emergency personnel until July 1, for example, “which is closer to the date I envisioned from the start,” according to owner Richard Doumeng.
Musician Dave Mason’s biography reads like a who’s-who of rock
history: the co-founder of the band Traffic with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood,
writer of “Feelin’ Alright,” and performer of the ‘70s hit “We Just Disagree”
counted Jimi Hendrix among his closest friends and has collaborated with
everyone from Paul McCartney and George Harrison to the Rolling Stones, Eric
Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, and Michael Jackson.
But it’s one particular friendship, which has endured for more
than 40 years, that brings him back to the Caribbean again and again.
In the late 1970s, Mason was riding the wave of success from “We
Just Disagree” (which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard charts in 1977 when
he visited St. Thomas to do a series of acoustic shows at Barnacle Bill’s in
the Sub Base neighborhood of Charlotte Amalie. “The stage was planks laid over
the lobster tanks,” Mason remembers.
The bands stayed at the small hotels then occupying nearby Frenchtown, one of which was operated by the Doumeng family, which still runs the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort today.
The Bolongo Bay Beach Resort in St Thomas.
“We just all clicked, and we’ve been friends ever since,” said
Mason, who over the years has jammed with David Doumeng (“if ever there was
someone born to be onstage, it’s David,” says Mason), moved to St. Thomas just
in time for Hurricane Hugo to hit in 1989 (“I moved there because of the
Doumengs”), and still hangs out with the family when he gets back to the
island.
One particular night Mason spend at Bolongo-owned Iggie’s Beach
Bar in 2012 has since become the stuff of island legend. The local band at the
bar was playing Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” when Stevie, who was
there for dinner, joined the Becca Darling Band for a rendition of “House of
the Rising Sun.”
Mason happened to be out to dinner with the Doumengs that night.
“I knew Stevie from the past, he played on a couple of my records,” says Mason
(the pair memorably recorded “The Lonely One,” along with Leon
Russell, in 1973). “Richard told me he was at Iggie’s — it just happened that
we were both there, although a lot of celebrities love that place down there.”
Mason hustled over to the bar in time to call his fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member back to the stage, where they jammed to a version of “Stormy Monday” with Stevie on harmonica and both artists on vocals leading a crowd-pleasing sing-a-long.
The song title became all too real for Mason a few years later.
The musician purchased a home in the heights above Charlotte Amalie in 1989,
and had barely settled in before Hurricane Hugo hit the island as a monster,
Category 4 hurricane.
“The intensity of a hurricane increases every 300 feet, and I was
about 1,200 feet above sea level,” he recalls. Mason, his wife, and their cat
rode out the storm in the mountainside home, eventually retreating to a rear
bathroom after the winds ripped through most of the house.
“For eight hours it sounded like a whole bunch of 747s ready for
takeoff,” he says.
Rather than fleeing the island after the storm, Mason stuck
around to help with recovery, including playing free shows with David Doumeng
to help keep people’s spirits up. The boost was needed on an island where
electricity wasn’t restored for three months and phones didn’t come back for
six.
“If you were a single guy and could make ice, you could have had
any woman you wanted at that time,” he says with a laugh.
The experience did nothing to dampen Mason’s love for St. Thomas
and the Caribbean. Not only did Mason remain a St. Thomas resident for four
years, he also frequently visits with friends in Virgin Gorda. The English-born
musician has been a long-time resident of California and also has a home in Maui,
but says, “Personally, I like the Caribbean better — the water is a whole lot
warmer.”
“Somewhere in my alternative life I was probably a pirate,” he
laughs. Mason also was exposed to West Indian culture, including reggae music,
at an early age — the latter influence can be heard in his 1987 duet with
Phoebe Snow, “Dreams I Dream,” as well as “World in Changes” from his 1970 solo
debut album, “Alone Together.”
Sailing, scuba diving, and the succulent delights of grilled
lobster are among favorite island experiences for Mason, who says celebrities
come to the Caribbean for “the same reasons everyone else does” — the beauty,
the beach, the food, and the warm welcome of the Caribbean people.
Mason remains busy with his music, including re-recording a special
50th-anniversary edition of his debut album (dubbed “Alone Together Again”) and
performing a new version of “Feelin’ Alright” with his ‘house band’ of Michael
McDonald, the Doobie Brothers, Sammy Hagar, and Mick Fleetwood, which he
dubbed, “Dave and the Quarantines.”
If not for COVID, he says, he’d be on the beach at Bologna Bay
right now.
“Taking a boat ride to Virgin Gorda or Tortola on the Heavenly
Days (Bolongo Bay Beach Resort’s catamaran) under a full moon — that’s my
vision of heaven,” he says.
The latest Caribbean Photo comes from Caribbean Journal reader Monique van Pamelen, who sent in this lovely shot of the Gold Mill Ruins on the east coast of Aruba.
Have you taken a great photo in the Caribbean?
Send it to news@caribjournal.com with CPOTW in the subject line, including your first and last name and the location of the photo.
The pandemic has altered the hospitality landscape in so many ways, with an understandably strong focus on health and safety.
One Antigua resort, the Hodges Bay Club, has announced a major new initiative to transform its operations to reflect the new realities of travel, particularly as Antigua begins to reopen for tourism next month.
That includes the introduction of a viral mitigation guide for the property, which covers “the prevention of any viral strain that may threaten the well-being of its staff and guests.”
The plan highlights all standard operating procedures to be adopted by the property in the event of any viral outbreak, including the actions of staff in areas of guest management, cleaning and disinfecting, room management, laundry operations and food and beverage.
Some of the resort’s measures include a 48-hour hold on rooms recently vacated, daily sanitization of rooms, a 48-hour laundry lock and pre-wash sun disinfecting process.
“Hotel management is cognizant of the extenuating circumstances caused by the onset of COVID-19 worldwide and sought to adapt the best practices of leading global corporations such as Disney, who enlisted the experts of the John Hopkins University to compile their list of operating protocols,” said Jeff Wellemeyer, CEO and Chairman of Hodges Bay.
A nurse’s station has been secured on property with two nurses and two doctors on call for 24-hour periods, and temperature checks have become a mandatory part of the resort’s staff and guest check-in procedure.
All staff members are also being asked to complete an on-line health checklist prior to leaving for work and this checklist is instantly screened to prevent sick staff members from attending work while exhibiting symptoms of a viral infection.
Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Minister Charles Fernandez said he was impressed with the level of commitment exhibited by the management of the property.
“They’ve covered all of the bases to ensure the safety of not just their guests but their staff as well,” he said.
“The good thing about this is that a template has been created to ensure consistency of operations to prevent or to contain not just COVID-19, but any similar viral outbreak that may threaten industry operations in the future, and I foresee that other properties will (and should) adopt similar procedures for guidance in these circumstances,” he said.
Once inspected and certified by the ministries of tourism and health, the resort plans to officially re-open for operation in early June 2020.
