Tobago needs direct flights

THE EDITOR: I have been reading online about the recent thrust by TIDCO and various government entities to increase North American tourism to Tobago, especially focused on next month’s Tobago Gospel Festival. As a regular USA visitor to Tobago who spends four months a year on the island, I would like to suggest what is probably the main reason for the small number of visitors from the USA to your most beautiful island of Tobago. Perhaps you have never tried to book a flight from Miami or Atlanta non-stop to Tobago ... not to Piarco, where the overnight hotel choices are few and lacking in amenities, but to Crown Point, Tobago, NON STOP; the choices available now from Miami, both from BWIA and American Airlines make it hard, if not impossible, to connect to the last flight to Tobago. Tourists who have only ten days to two weeks vacation at a time, do not cherish spending two of them getting to and from their destination.

If tapping the US market is one of the Tobago tourism goals, BWIA should be flying, at least twice per week, an early afternoon flight from Miami that goes non-stop to Tobago, before going on to Trinidad; at the same time Government should do whatever is necessary to allow BWIA to start flying from Atlanta, GA, a hub airport where hundreds of flights from the southern and mid-western USA connect each day to flights to Caribbean destinations. By using proper promotion and advertising venues, as well as non-stop flights, the upcoming Gospel festival in Tobago in July would attract many visitors from North America during the island’s slower season, as well as attracting endless visitors from the chilly north during the harsh winter months, all seeking the warmth of Tobago and its people.

MARTA FIGEL
Bloody Bay, Tobago and
Highlands NC USA