By Everett Potter

Tourism is the lifeblood of the Caribbean but the coronavirus pandemic has sealed off the region and it remains off-limits to travelers. The good news is that lockdown in the islands has resulted in relatively few cases of COVID-19.

“The Caribbean islands reacted early and swiftly to the crisis, they are used to hurricanes and I think that helped,” says Thom Dunaway, CEO of WheretoStay.com, which has been renting villas in the Caribbean since 1995. “Consequently islands like Turks &Caicos, St John, USVI, and Anguilla have had less than a dozen cases.”

Reopening is still very much up in the air and dependent on the government restrictions on each island. Even so, Dunaway offers some predictions for summer travel.

“Some people will start arriving on certain islands in June as long as flights carrying leisure travelers are welcome,” Dunaway speculates. “We anticipate more of a surge in July, and by August we fully intend to be quite busy with arriving guests …

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