After workplaces far and wide shut down to stop the spread of COVID-19, many companies have discovered that remote work, while not ideal, isn’t the worst situation. The world kept right on spinning and work still got done, after all – just not in the office.
Now, the government of Barbados has figured out that if you’re going to work remotely, you may as well enjoy yourself, so it’s extending an invitation to remote workers who want to stay on their welcoming shores a wee bit longer than usual.
The tourism industry has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
All but essential travel has basically been restricted for months now, and indoor spaces have proven to be one of the ideal places to spread the disease, so bars and restaurants and hotels are in a tough spot.
Nevertheless, the tourism-dependent Caribbean is cautiously starting to get their hospitality industry back in gear, but much has to happen before it can really get back to rocking.
One of the biggest hurdles for smaller nations like Barbados is the difficulty with COVID-19 testing.
So far, Barbados has reported just 103 cases and seven deaths due to COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins data , and they obviously don’t want it to get any worse than that. However, Barbados simply doesn’t have the testing capacity to be able to turn results around quickly.
While tourists will be required to show negative test results on arrival, if the nation wants to welcome many guests, their best option is to let people stay longer just in case they need to quarantine or if they’re having difficulties getting flights – or if they just want to stay in paradise a while longer.
And so, for those who want to take a vacation and then stay a while longer, Barbados is offering a greatly extended visa.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced that guests to the country who are planning on working remotely will have the option of a 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp, CNN reported.
“You don’t need to work in Europe, or the US or Latin America if you can come here and work for a couple months at a time; go back and come back,” Mottley said. “But in order for those things to truly resonate, what does it mean? It means that what we offer has to be world-class and what we continue to offer is world-class.”
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Hey, if you’re going to work remotely anyway, you may as well do it in tropical splendor, right?
Flights are indeed starting to resume to the Caribbean and Barbados. The tiny nation of 300,000 opened its borders to international travelers on July 12, with the negative test restriction, and Air Canada started flying to Barbados again on July 12 as well.
British Airways resumes flights between London and Barbados on July 18, and on July 25, Jet Blue is set to resume flights from New York, according to Barbados Tourism Marketing .
h/t: CNN
