“Avoid traveling to Guadeloupe” because of Covid-19, writes the American disease control site, cruelly disappointing local tourism players who have been trying for years to attract tourists from the United States and Canada.
A few weeks ago, it was due to the insecurity caused by the riots in November that the American government advised travelers against spending holidays on the paradisiacal beaches of the “island of beautiful waters”.
But at the start of the week, the Center for Diseases Control raised the alert level of Guadeloupe and the Northern Islands to the maximum, this time because of the level of evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic, the territory being placed since January 5 in a state of health emergency.
“The basket of these visitors (North Americans, editor’s note) is on average 25% higher than that of tourists from France, especially Americans who frequent high-end establishments“, reminds AFP Willy Rosier, the director of the Tourism Committee of the Islands of Guadeloupe (CTIG), an organization responsible for organizing the promotion of the territory.
In August 2018, the President of the Region Ary Chalus, taking advantage of the 40th anniversary of the Route du Rhum, went to New York to praise the merits of Guadeloupe to an audience of personalities. “The Region has identified the United States as a major target due to its geographical proximity and the qualitative potential represented by such a market.“, indicated a press release at this time, when the community launched “the implementation of its strategy to conquer this market both for companies in Guadeloupe and for the territory”.
“Signs of Recovery”
Despite this desire, the major communication operations implemented and the presence of a tourism office in New York, the airlines opened by Norwegian Airlines between Pointe-à-Pitre and the East Coast of the United States have closed. , American cruises still do not pass through Pointe-à-Pitre, and now the situation is not working in favor of the islands of Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory with strong competition from its English-speaking neighbors.
“It is still too early to measure the impact [de la décision du CDC]especially since it comes a few weeks after the November blockages which had already slowed down tourism between the United States and Guadeloupe”says Édouard Diverrez, commercial director at Air France.
“In December, given the uncertainty of low demand, we had to temporarily suspend our operations to New York and Montreal, between mid-January and mid-February, like some of our competitors“. However, the lines will reopen and “will be extended until the end of April instead of the end of March“, says Édouard Diverrez again.
“Signs of resumptions” which delight Guadeloupe airport, which indicated during a press conference that the resumption of lines and the frequencies envisaged by the airlines “are all reasons to hope for a gradual return to normal“, after two years of “traffic at half mast”. This one is indeed “down nearly 50% compared to 2019″despite a very slight improvement compared to 2020.
“During these two years, we have committed great resources to continue to make people want to come to us.“, assures Willy Rosier, without however giving the amount of the sums invested by the Region. The American market has a large margin of progress on the territory. “In 2019, of all the 820,000 so-called tourist tourists who came to Guadeloupe, North Americans represented 6%, but in absolute value, this attendance has doubled in eight years.“, explains Mr. Rosier.
The rest being essentially made up of French people from France who continue to like the destination, to the point that air traffic has sometimes experienced peaks in activity: after the lifting of compelling reasons, in July and August 2021 , there were up to nine jumbo jets per day. This had even raised a little anger locally, the visitors being then regularly suspected of being responsible for the epidemic waves, sometimes deadly, known by the island.