Tourists staying away from Tobago

“Occupancy is down in general this year,” Seepersadsingh said, adding however that visitor arrivals for this month were better than July, due mainly to an influx of local visitors. Meanwhile, with respect to bookings for the annual Great Race festivities next weekend (August 25 – 27), he noted the smaller hotels have “benefitted most.” He said the British travel advisories earlier this year played a major role in the visitor decline, affecting mainly British nationals and Europeans; while there has also been some concern over the weather pattern in the Caribbean region, especially in light of the heightened publicity (particularly via international television) over hurricanes.

He said some tourists were clearly turned off by the prospect of being “trapped” in one of the islands in the advent of a hurricane. On the contrary, he noted that Europe has enjoyed significantly good weather, with some days actually experiencing better weather conditions than Tobago. “So, in the circumstances, a lot of people have chosen to remain at home (in Europe); a lot of people have held off from travelling during the hurricane season,” he asserted. Another factor, he explained, was a fall-off in flights to Tobago. The Tobago hotel body president reported that LIAT – which operated flights twice-daily from Barbados to Tobago – no longer serviced the route.

In addition, according to Seepersadsingh, Caribbean Star has reduced its flights to Tobago, while on the international scene, LAUDA Airlines – which operated charter flights out of Austria – cancelled its service to the island prior to the summer tourist season.

Touching on the recent terrorist alert in the United Kingdom and the United States, Seepersadsingh said it was still a bit too early to tell, but it was expected that this would have some sort of a negative impact on travel to Tobago for the forthcoming winter season.

“We can expect some fall-off here, perhaps from the United States, but the Europeans are more resilient in terms of flying (travelling) in the face of a terrorist alert,” he said.

Meanwhile, these and other issues affecting the tourism sector in Tobago are expected to be discussed when the Tourism Standing Committee, chaired by THA Chief Secretary Orville London, convenes its 31st meeting at the Blue Haven Hotel in Bacolet at 1.30 pm today.