Who’s going to Tobago’s Carnival?

THA Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis sounded an odd note on Tuesday when he floated the idea of a separate Tobago carnival.

This concept, he seemed to think, could co-exist with his commitment to, as he put it, “manage this crisis and to manage the spread of this very dangerous and deadly virus.”

It was also discordant with the position of his political leader in the PNM, the Prime Minister, who announced on Monday that Carnival would not be celebrated on the expected dates in February 2021.

The challenge facing any imminent carnival celebration for Tobago, as with Trinidad, is the question of who will attend and under what circumstances.

Carnival is very much a crowd-and-contact event – exactly the kind of vector that offers ripe avenues for the transmission of covid19.

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil cancelled its carnival, in the face of a death toll of 139,000, the second highest in the world.

A plan for a separate carnival in Tobago has long been considered as a possible way to stimulate the island’s economy. In fact, the idea has been around for decades, It found its most recent advocate in NCC chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters, who has pushed for it since he served in the People’s Partnership government.

But the concept was being pursued in an entirely different environment for travel and public gatherings.

A year ago, a Tobago carnival event, hosted on a date later in the year, would have represented an expansion of the national tourism product and an opportunity for Tobago to enjoy a more profitable bite at a multi-million-dollar cherry it’s barely tasted.

Next year will probably not be the year for that Tobago carnival.

The innovation will be trying to establish itself by rolling a Sisyphean stone uphill against public fears as well as social-gathering restrictions that are unlikely to be relaxed enough to allow a traditional TT Carnival to flourish.

Tobago’s problem is real, but the solutions to its tourism standstill will not be found in bold but doomed dreams.

Tobago must first recreate itself first as a safe and desirable destination for Trinidadians when there is some relaxation of restrictions, then amplify that experience to the wider Caribbean if the “travel bubble” concept proves viable and becomes a wider reality within the region.

On September 22, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados agreed to allow travel between their islands without either covid19 testing or quarantine restrictions.

Each step forward in managing the spread of covid19 holds the potential for a limited but measured resumption of the island’s hospitality industry.

But there will be no miracles and no music trucks any time soon.