Elite Island Resorts — which includes nine resorts throughout the Caribbean — has announced that all company will be needed to be totally vaccinated upon arrival.

Starting Sept. 1, all attendees around the age of 12 will be demanded to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination upon arrival to any Elite Islands Resorts property.

“Recent science tells us that if you might be vaccinated, you are fewer most likely to become seriously ill, or finish up getting up a healthcare facility mattress in a fragile medical ecosystem this kind of as the Caribbean wherever area resources can not afford to pay for to be overburdened,” Elite Island Resorts Founder and CEO Robert A. Barrett said in a statement shared with Vacation + Leisure. “It can be crucial for us to defend the hospitals of these lesser island nations, and whilst they have had a fantastic track document so considerably with COVID-19, we need to stay vigilant, and all do our portion to turn into component of the solution.”

Elite Islands Resorts contains Los Establos Boutique Inn in Panama, Palm Island in the Grenadines, The Club Barbados, St. James’s Club Morgan Bay in St. Lucia, and five resorts in Antigua: Galley Bay Vacation resort & Spa, Hammock Cove, St. James’s Club & Villas, Pineapple Beach front Club, and The Verandah Resort.

Aerial view of Elite Island Resorts

Aerial check out of Elite Island Resorts

Courtesy of Elite Island Resorts

Barrett acknowledged that the vaccine mandate “might be disappointing to pick travelers,” and that the decision failed to “seek out to divide.”

“Following weighing all the decisions, concerns, and fears, mandating vaccines was the wisest selection in preserving the critical tourism marketplace of these beloved destinations which are so very important to the survival of so quite a few staff members, and the only way we will be in a position to continue to keep travel and tourism heading robust all through the drop and winter,” he added.

Proof of vaccination can include a CDC vaccination card. For far more data about specific destinations, visit the Elite Islands Resorts web page.

Places about the planet are significantly mandating vaccines. San Francisco and New York City need proof of vaccine to enter specified establishments. In Puerto Rico, all lodge and limited-phrase rental friends will have to be vaccinated. Turks and Caicos has also issued a vaccine mandate for people older than 16, and many cruise lines have adopted suit.

Cailey Rizzo is a contributing writer for Vacation + Leisure, at this time based mostly in Brooklyn. You can come across her on Twitter, Instagram, or at caileyrizzo.com.