Tobago’s Tourism Improves
Tobago’s Tourism Improves
Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Orville London says there are signs of improvement in Tobago’s tourism sector, which has been under significant pressure in recent years. London was commenting on statistics from UK and European tour operators and Condor and Virgin airlines submitted by Secretary of Tourism and Transportation Oswald Williams, who recently returned home from the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) travel market in Berlin, Germany.
Adding that the signs were encouraging London stressed: “Even if there seems to be signs of improvement we in the Division and the Tobago House of Assembly recognize that we’ve got to keep improving our destination, keep intensifying our marketing.”
Speaking at a post-Executive Council media briefing, Williams announced that the Executive Council had approved an extension on bookings in the “Tobago Go Go Program” to May 31 because of reports of improved booking trends by UK tour operators and Virgin Atlantic Airlines.
The Program allowed for a £100 rebate on the ticket of a UK traveler who also purchases accommodation in Tobago for at least seven days. He said even though tour operators only began taking the program seriously after last Christmas, reports indicated that about 150 passengers per week came out of the UK from November 2010 to February 2011.
“They are saying that bookings for that period compared to last year for that same time were up by 60 per cent, while a particular tour operator indicated that business was up by 75 per cent this winter,” Williams added. Virgin Atlantic, which threatened to pull out of Tobago last year, had also recommended an extension of the program. “Virgin Atlantic, of course, indicated that they would have been doing pretty alright as well and that they have been helped by the £100 rebate,” Williams said.
He said, in addition Condor, a major European airline operating on the Tobago route, indicated that “in respect to the current winter season we are well ahead of our quota and that we are likely to end the season about 10 to 12 per cent above given trends”.
Williams also revealed that among the proposals for marketing Tobago as a tourism destination at the travel fair was an offer by the TUI Travel Group to allow for seats to Tobago on fortnightly chartered flights destined to Barbados beginning December 14. He said the arrangement will be hinged on the availability of a prompt connecting flight from Barbados to Tobago and he is committed to negotiating with Caribbean Airlines to provide this service.
Another proposal coming out of the travel fair is an offer from Germany’s only travel television network to feature Tobago as an idyllic tourist destination to its more than 24 million viewers in Europe. He said the THA will look into the significant funding available for tourism development as indicated at the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) annual Caribbean Tourism Summit which he also attended in Brussels.
The Summit discussed taxation on travel and the impact it is likely to have on the travel industry, on the consumers who are the tourists and on Caribbean tourism development. Adding that Caribbean nations were able to put concerns on the table to representatives of the European Parliament who were in attendance, Williams said coming out of the discussions there are significant avenues for funding of tourism related and development projects in the Caribbean.
