All aboard for Tobago

The anticipated influx of European tourists to Tobago this year from Germany and Austria, with the possibility of additional visitors from Holland as well, may result in Crusoe’s Isle surpassing Barbados in tourist arrivals. An enthused Tourism Minister, Senator Howard Chin Lee, who along with Tobago’s Secretary for Tourism, Mr. Neil Wilson, had successfully marketed the island’s tourist appeal on a recent visit to Berlin, host to Europe’s largest travel fair, revealed that agreements had been signed with two airlines to fly directly to Tobago. Both will be from the winter season, Condor Airlines from Germany, and Air Lauder from Austria. A third deal with Martin Air of Holland appears a razor’s edge away.

Tourist arrivals from Germany alone are expected to rise sharply by 70 per cent, up from 7,000 in 2003 to 12,000 this year. The projected increase in visitor arrivals means that Tobago’s tourism is bouncing back from the slide it experienced following on the fall in the economy of the United States, which began in the first quarter of 2000, and the September, 2001 suicide bomber attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre. The strategic shift in marketing emphasis from the United States, where the 2001 attacks had made many Americans wary of flying, to the United Kingdom and Europe has been an undoubted success. The tactic had included face to face meetings between Cabinet Minister Chin Lee and the Secretary for Tourism in the Tobago House of Assembly with the management of several European airlines.

Undoubtedly, the preparatory work which had been done by officials of the Tourism and Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and TIDCO’s setting up of meetings with the respective airlines should not be discounted, and indeed had played a not inconsiderable part. But the interest shown by a Minister of Cabinet rank and the THA’s Tourism Secretary would have been crucial. Minister Chin Lee’s careful pointing out that the agreements signed with Air Lauder and Condor were expected to help Tobago pass Barbados in terms of tourist arrivals may be a diplomatic hint that the spending power of the visitors, or at least the majority of them, may not be in the order of the average visitors to Barbados’ West Coast. Nonetheless, whatever may be the spending power of the visitors, more jobs are being created in Tobago and more money is being turned around within the island’s economy.

In turn, once efforts are continued to be made by hoteliers and restauranteurs, along with those in transport and the entertainment industry to make their stay pleasantly memorable then they will act as needed referrals. Meanwhile, the tourist arrivals noted earlier, along with the higher end hotels, several with an encouragingly high occupancy rate, together make a valuable contribution to the nation’s employment levels and foreign exhange earnings. Tobago, which was once facetiously referred to as one of the world’s best kept secrets, has emerged as a Caribbean tourist destination major.