Non-European visitors in Curaçao can no longer attend events with more than 100 people as they lack a QR code connected to the European Union (EU) Digital COVID-19 Certificate (DCC). That’s not considered a huge problem, because most of the island’s tourism comes from the Netherlands.

Things are a bit different for St. Maarten and Aruba though, because they have North America as their main source market. For them it is important not to bar these guests from large nightclubs, concerts, etc.

One way to prevent such could be using the app to prove recent testing as well as vaccination status, which is not yet done in Curaçao. That will allow other tourists to at least gain access with a negative test result obtained locally if needed.

It would be better, however, if the governments of the US and Canada join the EU’s DCC system. The latter might also help stimulate seamless travel once the COVID-19 situation normalises and testing requirements are reduced for fully vaccinated passengers.

Some suggest all this makes no sense because persons who took the vaccine were infected too. But the point is that it regards a comparatively much smaller number, who rarely get very sick and seldom end up in hospital.

While eliminating any risk would indeed practically be a “mission impossible,” the trick is to keep it manageable.