WESTERN BUREAU: THE ANDREW Holness administration has come under immense pressure from the powerful and influential Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), which has called for a planned reopening date of the island’s borders for...
WESTERN BUREAU: Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says the decision to cancel Medevac helicopter support for the mother of two who suffered a miscarriage while aboard Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Adventure of the Seas was made by...
WESTERN BUREAU: Fear, dread, and anxiety have become maternity ward nurse Samantha Brown’s closest friends as she navigates working at the popular Cornwall Regional Hospital during COVID-19. Brown says that every day, she fears for the safety of...
WESTERN BUREAU: CONROY STERLING begged his mom, Joan Spence, not to break down and cry as he, twin Conrad, and adopted brother Rohan were repatriated to the island aboard the Adventure of the Seas cruise ship on Tuesday afternoon. After months of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Veteran hotelier John Issa has described the late decades-long friend Oliver Clarke as a fierce, “pro-truth” advocate whose leadership of The Gleaner Company in the 1970s saved Jamaica’s democracy. “He was a highly principled,...
WESTERN BUREAU: Airline and cruise-ship visitors to Jamaica may be required to present medical certificates of a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter the island when the country reopens its borders for tourism. The medical certificate, which...
Western Bureau: MAUREEN FORDE has been strapped for cash; father-of-five Donovan Bruce has been out of work since the start of the pandemic; and Richard Wallace is keen on ensuring his constituents are fed in a time of crisis. Forde, whose bar...
WESTERN BUREAU: Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has said that the post-COVID-19 era will see a new kind of tourism in which traditional norms will take a back seat to both forward thinking and creative planning. Bartlett, in a Gleaner interview...
WESTERN BUREAU: A reported 70 per cent reduction in business has forced fast-food chain Mother’s to close its 18 stores islandwide, relieving 900 staff and 200 vendors of their jobs for the next 30 days. It takes effect Saturday. Mother’s joined...
The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) has been accused of flaunting its authority by setting up a COVID-19 quarantine facility in a complex where some 70 families reside, but a senior regional official has pushed back at the criticism. The...
WESTERN BUREAU: UNIVERSITY OF the West Indies tourism lecturer Damion Crawford has painted a grim picture of a protracted recovery period for Caribbean tourism. The period spans more than 18 months. According to Crawford, who served as junior...
WESTERN BUREAU: A Jamaican is at the helm of virus-infection efforts at 13 clinics in Seattle, Washington, where the first COVID-19 case was recorded in the United States. Registered nurse Norma Avonie Amos, a certified infection specialist, is...
WESTERN BUREAU: With the coronavirus (COVID-19) showing no signs of letting up, a number of the island’s leading hotel operators have joined in the fight, with donations exceeding US$1 million, to assist with the response efforts. The announcement...
WESTERN BUREAU: Linford Graham* feels like he is living in a cage while being in solitary confinement for Samantha Willis* means refuge from the novel coronavirus on the outside. The two Jamaicans working on separate cruise ships, Harmony of the Seas...
WESTERN BUREAU: REELING FROM a near $283-million annual loss from the closure of hotels, the island’s farmers have been given a lifeline in the form of easier access to restaurants and supermarkets to sell their produce Minister of Tourism Edmund...
WESTERN BUREAU: Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has said that while the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought tourism to a grinding halt, the industry remains optimistic. Bartlett, who was addressing stakeholders from his Knutsford...
WESTERN BUREAU: Two Jamaican men are hungry and homeless after being stranded by Caribbean Airlines. Miguel Bailey and Lendert Pearson are lamenting being forced to sleep at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados since Monday night....
WESTERN BUREAU: Jakes Treasure Beach is the first local hotel to offer its 65 rooms for quarantine or isolation purposes for COVID-19 patients, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) has said. The resort, located in St Elizabeth, will...
WESTERN BUREAU: AS THE world mourns the death of late superstar Kenny Rogers, producer of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival Walter Elmore remembers the American singer-songwriter as a fabulous human being to work with. Elmore worked with Rogers,...
In a grim assessment of the aviation industry’s tailspin, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said yesterday that traditional tourism as “we know it” is coming to a screeching halt. The minister, who was responding to a United States Department of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Plunging arrivals out of the United Kingdom and Canadian markets as a result of COVID-19 have forced at least four Spanish hotels and several attraction operators to close their doors. The hotels – RIU Palace Jamaica, RIU Negril,...
WESTERN BUREAU: In quarantine now for 64 days in China, Jamaican teacher Ashley Thompson could now claim rights to being an expert on resiliency and the inner workings of the human spirit. Even while admittedly homesick, frustrated, lonely, and...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Carnival Cruise Lines-owned Princess Cruises will halt global operations of its 18 cruise ships for two months, a move that will rock the tourism-dependent Caribbean, including Jamaica. It is also the first sign of a major crack...
WESTERN BUREAU: COVID-19 has slowed the pace of the island’s tourist arrivals for the summer by 40 per cent, says Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association President Omar Robinson. “We are in a wait-and-see position at this time, but the estimate of...
WESTERN BUREAU: A meeting between Jamaican government officials and Carnival Cruise Lines appears to have borne fruit – at least for now – as the vessel Carnival Vista returns to Ocho Rios this Wednesday. The cruise line threatened to cut Jamaica...
