Tobago Tourism Agency welcomes airport expansion

The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited (TTAL) said it welcomed the development of a world class, state-of-the-art international airport terminal for Tobago in 2022.

In a release on Friday, TTAL said the expansion will increase the destination’s attractiveness and strengthen the agency’s covid19 recovery and resilience strategy for the tourism industry.

The ANR Robinson International Airport expansion project includes the construction of a new terminal, the expansion of the tarmac and a new car park.

Louis Lewis, chief executive officer of TTAL said, “The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited fully endorses the airport redevelopment and expansion project. We are looking forward to it with great anxiety, to change the narrative around the quality of the product in Tobago as we seek to transform it to become more economically viable.

“An airport facility is no longer considered as simply a transit point, it is part of the visitor experience. It is where visitors will gain their first impression of what to expect beyond the entry point, and it is also the facility that gives a departing visitor the last impression of a destination.

“Those two elements in the visitor stay contribute significantly to our international competitiveness, which is why this project is absolutely critical for the transformation process that we are looking for with regard to the recovery and resilience of tourism in Tobago.”

The release said the agency has already started using the expansion project as a selling point for the destination, keeping international travel partners and potential visitors in Tobago’s source markets.

In Germany, the release said the agency partnered with influential media publication Reservoir 9, to share what makes Tobago a perfect holiday destination and why travellers should visit the island, “and the airport expansion was used as an example of Tobago’s key tourism developments to entice visitors.”

Dr. Sherma Roberts, chairman of the TTAL’s board, said the airport expansion project was significant for destination Tobago.

“Coming after the Argyle International Airport in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the new ANR International Airport would have the distinction of being the newest in the region.

“It is a wonderful opportunity to create an architecturally ingenious facility that integrates modern technologies, reflects current and future passenger and air transportation needs, enhances entrepreneurial opportunities for local residents, stimulates foreign exchange and that serves as a premier regional attraction in and of itself.

“I am hopeful that this new airport would be iconic in every sense, reflective of the person in whose honour it is named.”