Tobago eyes German tourism market

The Germany-to-Tobago market is currently being tackled by the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL), with hopes of increasing the island’s visibly.

Addressing Wednesday’s post-Executive Council media briefing at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex in Scarborough, alongside the Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Transportation, councillor Nadine Stewart -Phillips, CEO of TTAL Louis Lewis made the revelation.

“The agency has been really active and we’re moving along with the very ambitious objective of increasing arrivals significantly in this first year as part of our roadmap for growth and the strategic plan that we have put in place. “We had a reputational issue that needed to be mended and the problems associated with that have deep roots.

“I am comfortable and very happy to report that based on the strenuous efforts, we have been able to mend those relationships.

So all the operators who had previously put a stop sale on Tobago have now re-engaged the destination and are selling Tobago, so that is very good,” he said.

He said there were specific reasons particular attention had to be paid to the German market.

“It is our second largest, but we are very careful, or very aware, of the fact that the UK market being our largest, there is a bit of uncertainty as we go forward.

“If you look at the UK business and consumer index, there is a bit of conservatism.

A very important metric for us is looking at the levels of investments that are taking place in the productive capacity of the UK: that is actually declining. We now have to ensure that our secondary market fills that gap should there be any fallouts.”

Lewis said attention is also being paid to the Canadian market as a representative was appointed recently, and a Tobago launch will take place towards the end of March.

“We would be unveiling the branding and go-to-market strategy in the Canadian market.

“We have a very important and strategic alliance with the Sunwing service, but we also have a very important partner who we would be working in collaboration with which is Caribbean Airlines.

Those two partners would assist us with our marketing efforts in the Canadian market.”

He said the other encouraging aspect was that the agency had renegotiated airline contracts aimed at ensuring that Tobago was available for visitor traffic year-round.

“So we have a summer programme with Condor and also a winter programme, as well as (creating) access via other options in Europe, coming through Manchester via the Thomas Cook service.

Thomas Cook and Condor are actually partners as we speak.”