The US State Department’s decision to raise the French West Indies’ COVID-19 advisory to “Level 4 – Do Not Travel” is obviously bad news for the entire destination. First, many Americans don’t know the difference between St. Maarten and St. Martin.
Second, it’s one island where guests can freely move around across the open border and the “two-in-one” nature of the tourism product remains a strong selling point not just for stayover visitors but also cruise passengers. Moreover, as goes one side, so does the other.
Mind you, not everyone in the US tends to take these warnings very seriously, also because the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issue their own and synchronisation with the federal government’s one has not always been optimal. These are anyhow not bans which can, for example, stop flights, but rather recommendations.
Still, the situation especially with the Delta variant is worrying enough to keep complying with safety measures like wearing face masks, social distancing and hand sanitising. Other than that, increasing the number of people taking the vaccine seems the only realistic way to get out of the current crisis and back to at least relative normalcy.
