— from Russel Barsh —
Congrats, Visitors Bureau, your ad campaign went viral. How far-sighted you were to begin promoting a return of tourism to the islands weeks BEFORE the County Council asked the state’s approval to move to Phase III. Too bad that the Governor rejected the Council’s request just before the big July Fourth holiday. What bad taste.
But not to worry, ferry and lodging reservations were already booked, and thousands of tourists came to the islands anyway! Many of them even forgot their face masks!
Everyone knows that you cannot catch Covid-19 in the Disneyland Islands, even if you bring it here yourself. And if you did, how nice of you to share it on a major national holiday. And you brought your own fireworks, so that islanders did not have to pay to shoot a bunch of them off for you! Of course, we can’t really know how successful your VIRAL ad campaign has been for another week to ten days.
Just joking! The reality is that the Visitors Bureau, some of our Chamber of Commerce friends and even some public land managers declared the county “open” before it legally was—and in the midst of a spike in new Washington State cases. The first week of July, Washington State reported 50 new cases per day per 100,000 population. Statistically, that makes it likely that of the thousands of July Fourth visitors, several were contagious (and may not even have known it).
Or to look at it a different way, by increasing the number of people traveling daily between the mainland and the islands about tenfold, the July Fourth festivities increased the risk of an outbreak in San Juan County by an order of magnitude this week.
As for those tourism dollars, they won’t pay for a single life damaged or lost.
Thanks, Russel. I worked with you and Madrona throughout high school and my family let you use our property during the summers when you were working on Skull Island. I want to share another perspective on this issue. The SJI economy, and the local businesses we enjoy frequenting and employ our friends and neighbors, depend on tourism spending during the summer months.
There’s no trade off between health and commerce, instead business owners have spent months re-training staff and investing in new safety protocols.
It’s unrealistic that we won’t have any cases in the Islands for the next 2+ years until there’s a vaccine, but we have plenty of PPE, partnerships with hospitals on the mainland and a robust testing and tracing system set up by the health department.
Even if you and Madrona haven’t see your livelihoods personally impacted by the shutdowns, please recognize that the health of Islanders is sustained by businesses paying taxes, providing health insurance and paying fair wages. These same businesses are now at risk of closing permanently if they can’t welcome back visitors.
“As for those tourism dollars, they won’t pay for a single life damaged or lost.”
Thank you Russel… for saying what I was thinking.
The actions of the SJI visitors bureau makes them appear careless, shortsighted, thirsty and greedy. When we talk about “how will our businesses survive?” “How can we get creative?” “What can we do for our community?“
How about redirecting some of your money and funding back into the treasured businesses you’re trying to stuff with bodies. The SJI has too much power and influence over our community and they currently have a serious PR problem locally. Who are you and who do you serve? It feels like you’re pimping the islands.