Minister of Tourism Stephen Cadiz met with Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London new Tourism Secretary, Tracy Davidson-Celestine and advisor Noel Wilson to discuss the way forward for tourism’s success in Tobago. Cadiz visits Tobago each and every Tuesday to engage the THA, tourism insiders and the people of Tobago on issues affecting them and tourism in the sister isle.
The minister believes that with the Ministry of Tourism, the Tobago House of Assembly and the Tourism Development Company united, tourism will get the focus and attention it deserves.
“Our goal at the Ministry of Tourism is to put more heads on beds and at the same time increase tourism’s yield. Tobago directly benefits from any increase in airlift, any influx of visitors, domestic or international and the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago benefit by more sustainable jobs, a larger contribution to our GDP and ultimately more revenue enjoyed by all,” Cadiz told the THA officials.
Almost 963,000 visitors came to Tobago in 2012, an increase of 4.3 percent, according to data from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
The numbers were announced by Tobago Secretary of Tourism Tracy Davidson-Celestine, who was presenting a motion last week at the plenary sitting of the Tobago House of Assembly.
That was compared to wider regional growth of 5.4 percent in 2012.
While she said the numbers were encouraging, its reliance on the British market presented challenges for recovery, with the UK’s struggling economy and the continued burden of the Air Passenger Duty.
The latter tax, which is levied on all flights originating in the UK, has led to strong opposition from the Caribbean, which has charged that it unfairly calculates its tax on the region.
In Trinidad it's mostly ecotourism and business tourism, but it's mostly leisure tourism in Tobago. There are currently 2500 hotel rooms in Tobago, so they'll have to increase the number of hotel rooms if they are going to attract more visitors.
That's pretty much in a nutshell, the mentality of the powers that be - with regard to tourism in the country (i.e industrial Trinidad is for business tourism and Tobago for leisure tourism). I personally think that the big island - Trinidad could be a little more leisure tourist friendly. While it does have have a conventional caribbean island look, there is enough beauty and uniqueness in the culture and cuisine to make an effort. Despite the lack thereof, TnT still manages to draw almost a half million tourists a year.
Tobago hotels are seeing a steady increase in their occupancy, president of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association Nicholas Hardwicke told the Business Guardian in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
“By and large it’s growing, but it’s not growing uniformly. When I say that I mean that the major hotels have seen an increase, but some of the smaller guest houses are static, and we know that inbound visitors have increased significantly over the last 12 months. But it’s very difficult to track where they’re staying because in Tobago, you have a lot of smaller guest houses: bed and breakfast places, and villas, which are harder to quantify because they don’t report to the usual statistical databases. But by and large, the occupancy here at the major hotels is marginally up, or if not, fairly favourable at this point in time,” he said.
The most recent numbers, Hardwicke said, “up to, and including, February, indicate there was an average occupancy of somewhere between 45 and 50 per cent, but that’s an average occupancy. I know that within that period, there have been some hotels that have been operating in excess of 70 per cent occupancy.”
By Elizabeth Williams Tobago Bureau
Story Created: Apr 1, 2013 at 8:41 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 1, 2013 at 8:41 PM ECT
Tobago hotels were almost sold out for the long Easter weekend, according to president of the Hotel and Tourism Association in Tobago Nicholas Hardwicke.
With both local and domestic tourists flocking to the island for activities such as the goat and crab races yesterday in Mt Pleasant and similar activities in Buccoo today, there are hardly any rooms left empty.
Hardwicke said the room occupancy figures are not only excellent but good for the tourism thrust and the Tobago economy. Only a few more rooms were available on Sunday, he said during a telephone interview that day.
“All the bookings that were coming have arrived, so I am told the traffic on the air and sea bridge has been good and active and, you know, most of our hotels are reporting occupancies in excess of 80 per cent,” Hardwicke said.
Hardwicke said these figures represent a step in the right direction, but there are some concerns.“Of course, our concern is always what happens next. I mean, you expect to be busy over the weekend, and what we have seen is that the build-up started a bit earlier. People staying a bit longer,” he said.
Published: Thursday, March 21, 2013
Dixie-Ann Dickson
Radisson Blu, Germany
The Radisson brand, which will be established soon in T&T, may just create that competitive push the hotel industry requires.
T&T-based Allied Hotels and Resorts announced through a press statement in February that Issa Nicholas, chairman of Allied Hotels and Resorts, reached an agreement with the Carlson Rezidor Group to transform its Port-of-Spain hotel, formerly called Crowne Plaza, into a Radisson brand.
The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, plans to develop five hotel properties in the Caribbean, among them is Radisson Port-of-Spain Trinidad. The statement said this new urban property would cater to both business and leisure travellers seeking a well-positioned hotel with modern luxuries.
The hotel will comprise 243 rooms and offer more than 15,000 square feet of convention space for professionals, and an outdoor pool and a Caribbean-inspired restaurant for leisure guests.
The Tobago House of Assembly has revealed an increase in the winter flight services of both British Airways and Monarch Airlines.
As of October 26th, two additional BA flights will operate via Antigua to the island of Tobago, increasing capacity on the route by 100 per cent to meet demand.
This is closely followed by an additional direct weekly Monarch Airlines flight, which commences on December 16th 2014.
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