Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins says hotels are reporting a number of cancelations of bookings due to concern in Barbados’ tourism markets about the vaccination rate among tourism workers.

Senator Cummins was speaking to Starcom Network News in her first public statement on the level four travel advisory issued for Barbados by the US.

She says while that development is disappointing it was expected.

Senator Cummings stresses that Barbados now has a much bigger problem, the fact that overseas tourism partners are reluctant to do business with properties here unless their staff is vaccinated.

Senator Cummins notes that Barbados has strong advance bookings for the upcoming winter tourist season but that could be jeopardized if enough people in the tourism sector aren’t vaccinated.

She stresses how critical the vaccination rate is to the tourism and overall economic and jobs recovery.