BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados government says it is considering introducing the 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp to allow visitors the option to work remotely from the island for a year at a time.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said that the stamp concept, now being refined for promotion, would allow “persons to come and work from here overseas, digitally so, so that persons don’t need to remain in the countries in which they are”.
She said one of the things the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has shown is that it made short-term travel more difficult because of the testing and the requirements for rapid testing, which were not reliably available.
“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. 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,” Mottley said.
“The government is committed to working with you on the promotion of new concepts like the 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp, being able to open our borders to persons travelling and making it as hospitable as ever for all of us, and making it available for Barbadians from every walk of life to believe that for special occasions, or just for so, that they can come out and be a part of this wonderful exercise.”
Mottley said that in building an inclusive society, there has to be something in it for everyone, and the work done by her administration was not only limited to the restaurant sector alone, but involved working with communities to be able to get the best out of them.
“If the first tourist is a Bajan, then they must equally, also be the first promoter and the first protector,’ she said, praising nationals for their involvement in the development of various tourist attractions on the island.
“The people who must keep these towns alive are not just those who come from overseas, as we are learning with COVID, but those who live here and who have a responsibility to make sure that this is the best that can be offered in this part of the world.”
CMC
