Tobago hotels face ‘massive’ cancellations

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

PRESIDENT of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Agency (THTA) Chris James said hotels are facing massive cancellations as a result of the TT Express being pulled from service.

“We’re very concerned about this Carnival weekend,“ James said.

”The hotels are not booked, we had considerable cancellations last weekend and now I am hearing of more and more cancellations. We did badly for Christmas, we did badly last year for the Summer season because of this problem and now we are going to lose Carnival. We hope that we can get back on track for Easter but that is still looking gloomy.”

He described 2017 as the worst year for international and domestic arrivals.

“2018 has not started off to be any better and, with the total collapse of the seabridge, we don’t see any hope for Carnival and of course the inability of Caribbean Airlines to substitute as a carrier to the island.”

Meanwhile, in a press release, THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles said he continues to be deeply saddened and disturbed by the circumstances surrounding the Port Authority (PATT) and the management of the seabridge.

“There is no way I can be happy or comfortable about this new development, especially at this time. Carnival is a very important time in our nation, for both participants of the festival and non-participants who may simply choose to relax in Tobago. Both Trinidadians and Tobagonians are being affected. Our tourism is being affected and so too are many of our businesses,” Charles said.

And Tobago steelbands traveling to Trinidad to compete in the National Panorama finals are being accommodated on the airbridge. The five small bands which include Our Boys, New East Side Dimension, Uptown Fascinators, Tobago Pan-thers and Alpha Pan Pioneers arrived in Trinidad on Monday to take part in their finals which was held last night at Skinner Park.

However, medium bands competing tomorrow at the Queen’s Park Savannah – NLCB Buccooneers and Petrotrin Katzenjammers – were expected to be flown to Trinidad between yesterday and tomorrow. The instruments were to be transported on the 11 pm sailing of the Cabo Star yesterday.