Barbados welcomes remote workers: Why work from home during the pandemic when you can work from sunny Barbados ?  1

The global travel and tourism industry has been reeling under the impact of Coronavirus pandemic. In a recent National Geographic feature highlights “If the pandemic continues for several more months, the World Travel and Tourism Council, the trade group representing major global travel companies, projects a global loss of 75 million jobs and $2.1 trillion in revenue.” (How hard will the coronavirus hit the travel industry?).

While the travel and tourism has been hit hard, companies around the globe have been encouraging their employees to work from home. Enabled by email, video chatting and cloud computing tools, most white collar workers have figured out ways of working remotely.  Employers are also planning for a post-pandemic era where they may continue to enable employees to work remotely (ref: List of companies announcing permanent or long-term work-from-home plans).

Barbados wants you to work from its beaches during the pandemic 

When life gives you lemon, make lemonade seems to be the thinking behind Barbados administration’s move to attract visitors to ‘Work from Home’ from sunny Barbados with a “Twelve-Month Barbados Welcome Stamp”  This disclosure was made by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who explained that the stamp concept, now being refined for promotion, would allow “persons to come and work from here overseas, digitally so, so that persons don’t need to remain in the countries in which they are”.

Economic forecasts for Barbados this year are “rough, rough, rough,” PM Mottley said, with unemployment tripling since March. Attracting foreign workers to come, live and work out of Barbados is a move intended to ease the economic crisis. Leaders of island nations, like PM Mottley, have decided to size the opportunity “You don’t need to work in Europe, or the US or Latin America if you can come here and work for a couple months at a time; go back and come back.”

According to country’s Government Information Service, Barbados has a reported 98 cases of COVID-19 with 8,617 total tests completed. There have been only seven deaths, with 90 cases recovered and one currently in isolation. Given the pandemic’s small footprint in Barbados compared to countries like Italy, the United States, Brazil, France, Spain, and others, the island country seems to be banking on its soothing landscapes and sunny beaches to attract working-visitors. 

Not just Barbados: others are jumping on the bandwagon

An article in Washington Post also highlights how Barbados is not the only country trying to open up to laptop-toting foreigners. Estonia is to launch its own long-awaited “Digital Nomad” visa program in the coming months, and countries including Georgia, Germany and Costa Rica already have visa programs geared toward freelancers.

A survey by research and advisory company Gartner, Inc.  of 127 company leaders, representing HR, Legal and Compliance, Finance and Real Estate, revealed 82% of respondents intend to permit remote working some of the time as employees return to the workplace. For many organizations with employees working both onsite and remotely, adapting to a new, more complex hybrid workforce is the challenge as how people work together to get their job done evolves.

References:

• Twelve-Month Barbados Welcome Stamp For Visitors – Government Information Service, Barbados
• Visit Barbados – The Official Barbados Tourism Guide 2020