Barbados Wants You to Live and Work Remotely There for a Year
If the closest you’ve gotten to a tropical paradise in months is by looking at framed artwork of the ocean on your walls, it’s understandable if you’re experiencing more than a little wanderlust. Even though nonessential travel in the US and internationally is still generally not recommended by officials amid the growing coronavirus pandemic, the Barbadian government is offering a pretty sweet incentive for remote workers to pack their bags and head to Barbados for a year-long stay.
Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley recently announced plans for a 12-month Barbados ‘welcome stamp’ for visitors, an incentive that would offer people the opportunity “to come and work from here overseas [digitally], so that persons don’t need to remain in the countries in which they are.”
By opening the borders of the Caribbean country to international long-term visitors, Mottley hopes to make Barbados “as hospitable as ever for all of us,” along with giving the tourism industry a much-needed boost after travel around the globe has been impacted by COVID-19.
Of course, you might naturally be feeling a bit wary when it comes to traveling amid such uncertainty, but Mottley is hoping to make visitors and locals alike feel at ease by instituting a series of COVID-19 safety protocols, namely by requiring all visitors to present a negative test result upon entering the country and wearing a face mask at the airport. For visitors coming from high-risk countries, the test results must be from 72 hours or less before arrival, and for those in low-risk countries, results can be from a week prior.
It seems concrete plans for the welcome stamp are still in the works, but Mottley reportedly told the UK’s Sky News that “COVID-19 has presented tremendous challenges to those countries that are tourism- and travel-dependent,” acknowledging that “part of the challenge relates to short-term travel.”
Those chosen for the program would be housed in villas, condominiums, hotel rooms, and rental houses, and given the option for workspaces if they so choose. She added, “if we can have a mechanism that allows people who want to…take advantage of being in a different part of the world, of the sun, sea and sand, and…a stable society; one that functions well, then Barbados is a perfect place for you to come.”