Bora-Bora (France) (AFP)

Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu, traveling to Bora Bora on Saturday, conditioned the return of French tourists to Polynesia to the collective immunity of Polynesians from Covid-19.

The President of Polynesia Edouard Fritch thinks of reaching this objective, with 70% of people vaccinated, "in July, or perhaps at the end of June".

Until then, no tourist will be able to disembark from Europe.

Tourism is the first local economic sector and one of the most affected by the pandemic.

Polynesia welcomed more than 236,000 tourists in 2019, but only 77,000 in 2020, and very few in 2021 due to border closures.

French Polynesia's GDP lost 10% in 2020.

Polynesia reopened its borders to only American tourists on May 1, with a strict protocol imposing several tests and a ten-day quarantine for unvaccinated travelers.

For lack of vaccine, the children must undergo quarantine, which causes many cancellations, lamented the CEO of the company Air Tahiti Nui Michel Monvoisin.

"We would like to relax this blocking point for children," asked Christophe Guardia, co-president of the Council of Hotel Professionals.

But for Sébastien Lecornu, "there is no question of that, because if we have made such significant efforts for months, it is not to create a notch in the protocol that would create a danger".

French Polynesia has encouraged domestic tourism to preserve hotel structures on small islands.

These incentives mainly benefited guesthouses and had limited effects on upscale hotels frequented by wealthy tourists.

Bora Bora has twelve four or five star hotels, and more than half of the 11,000 inhabitants have a trade related to tourism.

The Covid-19 epidemic has been in sharp decline in Polynesia since the start of the year.

The community deplores 141 deaths, but none for two months, and only one person is hospitalized in intensive care.

© 2021 AFP