The provincial government is looking at tightening up travel requirements even as it is working on a plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions.

The reason: reports of tourists from outside the province showing up in places like Bonavista to see icebergs.

Bonavista Mayor John Norman says he’s spoken to some of the visitors, and while they’re welcome at any other time, their arrival in the province during a global pandemic is leaving many scratching their heads.

He says they have no official confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, and they wish to keep it that way. For now, Bonavista is closed to tourism.

The visitors, who appear to be staying at non-registered accommodations, are coming from places like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and the US.

Norman says he even saw a review posted to an Airbnb site with comments from recent visitors to Bonavista outlining their stay.

Health Minister John Haggie says it’s a matter for law enforcement, once reports are made, but he admits non-essential travel to the province needs to be better filtered. The system currently relies on people to be forthcoming and truthful about the reason for their visit.

Marine Atlantic’s Darrell Mercer says filtering travelers coming to the province on the ferry is the job of inspectors. As it stands right now, any passenger who gets off a Marine Atlantic vessel must go through a provincial inspection process.

Ultimately, Mercer says enforcement lies with each province individually, and that is where non-essential travel cases should be picked up.

He says they’ve had cases in Nova Scotia where inspectors have identified people and sent them back because their travel wasn’t deemed essential.