Low bookings in Tobago for holidays

TOBAGO hotels are reporting low occupancy for the two-day holidays.

Speaking with Newsday by phone yesterday, general manager of the Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort Vinod Bajaj said he was awaiting all the last-minute bookings and remained hopeful.

“We would have liked to see more, but we have not seen that. That is the continued challenge, but we remain optimistic,” he said.

Bajaj said his team participated in the Trinidad roadshow hosted by the THA Division of Tourism, Culture and Transport and the Tobago Tourism Agency from May 17-19 under the theme Back to Tobago Time.

“The response was very good, very good response, a lot of people were interested. But their concern was more of a ‘how to get to Tobago.’

“However, since then, we haven’t seen the kind of increase that we would like to see, as it’s all last-minute bookings,” he

Duty manager at Kariwak Village and Holistic Haven Sherwin Boyce also attended the roadshow said that it provided some encouragement.

“We got a chance to get out of Tobago to sell our product, from the hotel point of view, and sell we did. Our engagements with persons were spot on.” He said he and a colleague who attended “actually hit the mall on foot to get people to come to our desk.”

However, since then, he said, the reservation calls are increasing, but the bookings are still slow. People were “calling with more confidence,” he said, since n the past the attitude would have been “No, I am not taking that chance.”

Now people are more willing to book, “because for the past few weeks they haven’t heard anything negative about the boat and the plane and these seem to be on time. So the calls are more confident, which means that we can better engage the clients and get a better turnover.”

Chairman of the marketing committee of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association (THTA) Duane Kenny said that it was clear people were still interested in coming to Tobago.

“From the roadshow we could have gauged that the domestic market is still open.

But we also know that there are still challenges in Tobago with the PR issues as related to the ferry problems that happened from last year.

“Even though the ferry is working now, I think that it was important that we went to tell people that the ferry is working now, as that had a really strong negative impact on Trinidadians,” said.

He said through the roadshow he realised a lot of Trinidadians didn’t know Tobago had great deals on accommodation.

“Over the last few months, through Facebook and even with this roadshow, we have been educating people about the rates that we have, and they are very competitive, if not lesser than most of the other islands, if you add up the flights to those places.

“It is good that we are getting out there and educating the masses about what is out there, and the feedback is generally positive,” Kenny said.

A week ago, addressing the post-Executive Council news briefing, Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Transportation Nadine Stewart Phillips, reporting on the roadshow, said overall, the responses were positive, and promotional roadshows provide the ideal platform to integrate marketing activities not only by stimulating consumers’ intention to purchase but also an avenue to activate the purchasing intentions by having readily available detailed information.

She said the main intention of the roadshow was to encourage year-round domestic tourism, as there is something to do in Tobago all year round.