Saint Lucia was among the first Caribbean countries to re-open to visitors following the March 2020 COVID-19 outbreak and it appears the destination will be equally prepared to surmount CDC’s recent change in traveler protocols.

That’s because the destination has maintained rigid travel protocols including required pre-arrival COVID-19 testing, daily screening and monitoring of staff and visitors, implemented sanitization protocols at intermittent points during travelers’ stays and authorized updated social-distancing strategies.

Responsibility for the country’s overall approach rests with its prime minister, Allen Chastanet, a Saint Lucia native who is also a former tourism minister of the Caribbean nation. Chastanet’s travel background also includes a term as vice president of marketing and sales for Air Jamaica. In addition, he is currently managing director of Saint Lucia’s Coco Palm Hotel.

We spoke with the country’s leader to gain his perspective on Saint Lucia’s ability to adapt to the latest CDC changes and learn how its tourism segment has fared since the outbreak.

TP: Please describe the impact of the latest CDC changes on Saint Lucia’s tourism protocols and procedures, if any.

AC: “It hasn’t impacted us really. We are prepared and have been prepared for a very long time to implement PCR testing for persons to travel back to Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.”

TP: How were you able to prepare for this requirement so quickly?

AC: “We started to design protocols for Saint Lucia in April [and] opened up in June. Saint Lucia from that point had already been calling for PCR testing before you get on a plane. There was no scenario that we ran that allowing a person in the country without a PCR test made any sense. Testing people on arrival from a contact tracing standpoint, creates all kinds of problems.

“We felt that the travel industry might recover much quicker if people’s confidence in travel was addressed, so from very early we were calling for PCR testing. I think Saint Lucia had the right perspective from the get-go. There’s a term we use called “co-existing with COVID,” because COVID is like Mother Nature. You can’t beat Mother Nature, you have to learn to work with Mother Nature.”

TP: Does Saint Lucia enjoy any advantages in this situation?

AC: “The difference with we have done versus what is taking place in the bigger countries, which is very difficult thing for them to replicate, is that you can come into our tourism bubble. You can stay at a hotel, have access within the hotel and we have special tours that we have certified. Or, you can come in and go into quarantine for 14 days.”

TP: Your country’s COVID-19 protocols appear to be comprehensive and stringent, and overall infection rates remain low. How was this achieved and how did it factor in the government’s decision to reopen the destination to visitors earlier than other Caribbean nations?

AC: “We basically said look, what are our clear objectives here? Our objectives are to save lives and to save livelihoods. Your governor in California I think really put it very well: this is not an on-off switch, this is a dimmer switch. It's going to be constantly going up and down. When there are times when it’s required to strengthen your protocols, because there’s a potential community spread, you do that. What we’ve done is always adjust our protocols based on what the evidence is telling us.”

TP: How has tourism fared since reopening in June?

AC: In the month of December we had almost a 45 percent recovery of our tourism sector. We have taken the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF); we have instituted and implemented a lot of capital projects investments projects. We’re fixing up roads, our airport [redevelopment] has started, we’re fixing up heath care and community centers, really preparing for when the world re-opens again. We still have not returned to our 2019 numbers; all indications are that won’t happen until 2023–2024.

“But you know we’ve given ourselves hope in terms of what the future holds. The good news is with the vaccine coming, there’s a finish line. Six months ago, nobody knew where the finish line was.”

TP: The visitor experience in Saint Lucia today is obviously somewhat different compared with pre-COVID days, but can visitors still expect a representative Saint Lucia experience in the destination now?

AC: “We have 200,000 American arrivals each year so this is not a mass tourism destination. We want to remain authentic and the destination has lent itself to do what we are doing because we have a lot of open-air tourism like going to the Pitons, or going to Sulfur Springs or zip-lining. All of these things are outdoors.

“We’re very lucky. Saint Lucia is a romantic destination . Even in our all-inclusive hotels, globally they would be classified as boutique hotels because they’re that small. Saint Lucia is not one of these dense tourism populations. We still have a tourism product that is very much integrated into the DNA of Saint Lucia. Even with some of the tours we have, it was very easy to put protocols in place to make them safe. It’s always been about keeping tourists safe and keeping our local population safe.”