A market in Pointe-à-Pitre, September 23, 2020. -

Lara BALAIS / AFP

Spend the holidays in the tropics.

The idea has never seduced so many metropolitan people in search of the warmth and smells of vacation.

But in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, part of Guadeloupe are worried about the floods of passengers dumped on the tarmac at the airport.

Only hoteliers seem delighted with this influx of tourists.

"There was a last minute rush to the West Indies, they are sunny, affordable destinations, the restaurants are open and this is France", explains Didier Arino, director of the specialist firm Protourism.

Since the second deconfinement, the airlines are full and have even added lines from Parisian airport Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle.

"We were three jumbo jets per day, we went to 6-7 dailies", indicates Alain Bièvre, president of the airport management board, who specifies that the peak will be for December 26 when "we will welcome nine jumbo jets" .

The rate of fifty flights per week is planned until the start of the school year in January.

Happy tourism professionals

“It's been three years since I last came home,” says Sandrine Georges, who came to spend Christmas with her family.

No hugging with his brother despite this long separation.

The mask and the “

elbow

 check

” are still required.

Like her, many visitors come to spend the holidays in the West Indies, to find their loved ones or spend a holiday in the sun.

In hotels, which have been closed or in slow motion since April, we are preparing for a busy month of December: “We have very high attendance between December 26 and January 1,” explains Catherine Cadrot, general manager of the Arawak hotel, an establishment in the town of Gosier very popular with tourists.

Its hotel has an occupancy rate of 80%, with a "strong trend", for its 102 rooms for sale.

At Club Med too, we have found a smile again.

At the end of 2019, the establishment inaugurated new premises, which the pandemic of early 2020 came to close.

At the end of the year, "we are welcoming around 600 people in the village, which is 80% full," report the two masked animators who came to pick up customers at the airport.

For the moment, no order prohibiting the arrival of tourists

This return to a semblance of normalcy worries some on the island, which is just recovering from the second wave of the epidemic.

It has raised the number of deaths here to 154 and continues, although very significantly slowed down, to claim victims.

Social networks are teeming with irony, mistrust, questions: "Ready for confinement in January?

", Some worry, when others speak of" state crimes ", tirelessly recalling the deficiencies of the CHU of Guadeloupe.

This is also the opinion of Elie Domota, the leader of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG) who does not understand: “In recent days, the government has banned the French from going to ski resorts. , in France and in Europe, to better control the evolution of contamination, ”he wrote in a letter to the authorities from whom he asked for an order prohibiting the arrival of tourists.

On the side of the authorities, however, we want to reassure.

"We are focusing on the major point of prevention", explains Valérie Denux, the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), who recalls that the risk is very high in "intra-family", while we are tense. on "tourists".

Also at the airport, the State services distribute flyers to arrivals, recalling the measures in force on the island and tourism stakeholders have been briefed.

"We encourage people to take a test a few days after their arrival and to avoid too much travel until this test is done", explains Catherine Cadrot, from Arawak.

Society

Guadeloupe: More than 1,000 additional RSA requests each month

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