THA secretary: 'Significant uptick in domestic arrivals'

The domestic sector would play an important part and a pivotal role in assisting in the recovery of the tourism sector on the island, said THA Secretary of Finance and the Economy Joel Jack.

Speaking with Newsday, Jack said initially, it seemed the tourism sector would face the full brunt of the economic shock, given that both international and domestic arrivals had to be limited as measures were put in place to confront the covid19 pandemic.

He said: "What I’ve seen over the past months, looking at October/November – the last quarter of 2020 – even into this period, we have seen a significant uptick in domestic arrivals. The numbers at the various hotels even point to that and additionally, one important sub-sector in addition to the normal bed-and-breakfast type operations continues to be the villa sector, and that sector is doing very well.

"If gauging by the fact that persons were unable to get bookings around Christmas and even more recently what would have been the post-Carnival weekend, we have seen a continual increase of arrivals in the domestic sector.”

He added that at the onset of the pandemic, the THA projected an economic decline overall of approximately 15.3 per cent, but at this time, it is still monitoring the situation.

“We continue to gauge what is happening within the economy."

He said the THA was making requests from various sectors, undertaking GDP estimates for the current and previous fiscal years, and working with various stakeholders in the business community.

He said when one examines how the Tobago economy is structured, with approximately 45 per cent of the island’s GDP being accounted for by government expenditure, the financial services second around 26 per cent, and tourism approximately 13 per cent, government expenditure has played and would continue to play a major role as the THA sought to ensure and foster economic recovery.

He said the assembly continues to see several construction projects ongoing both in the public and private sectors.

He said that was a good sign that as it managed the covid19 pandemic and sought to "foster an enabling environment to ensure economic recovery in the shortest possible time," the assembly was doing all that was required. He said it was also liaising with the various stakeholders to make sure it provided the necessary support.”

He said that he recently met with the Tobago Chamber of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce and also the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association as the assembly continues talks on how it could provide additional support to the private sector during what he called a challenging time.”

Follow-up meetings would be scheduled, he said, as he has pledged to work with the private sector to “mitigate some of the challenges outlined and rekindle economic growth on the island.”