War hits Tobago tourism

THE WAR in Iraq has already started to affect tourism in Tobago through a number of flight cancellations and Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Orville London fears the sector could be once again be in danger. Following a meeting of the Tourism Task Force at the Blue Haven Hotel Monday afternoon, London told reporters, hoteliers had already begun to experience a drop in occupancy levels. He expressed serious concern for the sector, which is clawing its way out of a depression that started three years ago.

London said Tobago is unlikely to achieve the predictions set for tourist arrivals this year. He called the situation “distressing” given the fact that the sector had also been hit hard by the aftermath of the terrorist strikes on the United States in September 2001. “We’ve got to be realistic. People are just not travelling and one can understand that — these are dangerous times and I know what is particularly disheartening is that it has come just at a time when we are recovering from 9/11,” London said. He noted that most of the hotels had favourable projections for the following year but had experienced severe cutbacks. “This (the current situation) is particularly distressing. We are hopeful that at the end of the exercise that Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean will still be considered a safe area and that we are going to be able to compensate for what is going to be a very, very unfortunate drop in the kind of occupancy that we expected.”

London said Tobago was projected to increase visitor arrivals from about 57,000 last year to about 70,000 this year. “That was very achievable. I don’t know how achievable it is at this point in time because remember we are also in the midst of the tourist season. It is very, very disheartening but we will continue to treat with it in as professional a manner as possible,” he said. There were no immediate reactions from several hotels contacted on the severity of the cutbacks, but London noted that even the hotel where the Tourism Task Force meets to plan strategies for attracting tourists was affected by the cancellations.