Yesterday I saw a contribution t-shirt being worn by one of the generous individuals who has helped support the small businesses of Negril. I had to stop and spend a few minutes chatting with him. He remarked that the Negril beach is very empty, unlike what he'd ever seen before. He promised to stop by the businesses listed on the shirt to help out even more. He is in a for a genuinely warm, heartfelt greeting at these businesses.
For all of you who have so generously contributed to the cause, you are truly assisting the survival of these businesses and putting food on the table for many workers who continue to have employment. And the donations to the St. Anthony Kitchen is providing food for those who remain jobless and in dire need of food.
I have truly been blown away by the support given so far, the look on the business owners faces cannot adequately be described in words. The stories that each owner has, although personal, all express their sincere gratitude whether it was help paying rent, keeping the water running or stopping JPS from cutting off their power.
And being able to meet some of you and thank you in person when I notice your contribution t-shirt and hear your stories makes this whole project worthwhile.
Many of you have contributed twice and we thank you!
More contributed after coming to Negril and seeing the conditions first hand, and we thank you!
You are making a difference.
With the Canadian air traffic to Jamaica limited, this has removed a huge base of tourists who would normally visit Negril. Although the island wide numbers of Canadian tourists is annually about 20%, the numbers that make Negril their vacation destination is closer to 40%. So roughly half of Negril visitors simply cannot afford to come here with the expensive re-entry fees the Canadian government is dictating. On July 5th, we hope to see some Canadian faces when the fully vaccinated can re-enter without the mandatory Covid hotel stay, but less than 30% of Canadians are fully vaccinated. So it does not look to be a real promising summer.
The Ministry of Tourism has been trying to give people hope, stating that just under 600,000 visitors have arrived so far this year, about 120,000 coming to Negril. Since we are in slow season, things don't generally pick up until late November, Negril will be lucky to have an estimated 200,000 visitors this year vs over 500,000 in 2019. And the majority of these visitors will be staying at the All Inclusive resorts.
We are not through the rough times yet. Usually businesses have money saved up from the busy winter season to make it through the slow summer months, but this year there was virtually no winter season and thus no money in the bank to cover these slow times. We are asking you, those who have the means, to help support both the small businesses and St. Anthony's Kitchen through the these times. We are presently hoping that Canada will stop the costly Covid hotel quarantine sometime late July which may help bring more visitors down for the fall season. That is why the current plans are for the contribution drive to end July 31st.
But as we have learned over the course of the pandemic, everything is subject to change.
To contribute to our cause, please visit the Negril Store at https://negrilstore.com
