Tobago must be ready when tourism reopens

Now is the time to position Tobago as a go-to destination for when tourism reopens.

Failing to do so will, at best, be a lost opportunity, and at worst, be detrimental to the island’s economic recovery.

The pandemic has been a harsh reminder of the need for Tobago to diversify. The island relies on tourist arrivals and revenue from the tourism trade. A portion of this comes from foreign visitors.

But, as seen over the Easter holiday, a great deal of the island’s economic activity is actually supported by domestic travellers from Trinidad.

As a result, the island is simultaneously vulnerable to international conditions and over-reliant on domestic conditions. That should change. Other sources of revenue need to be encouraged, ranging from agriculture to green energy.

But the enabling environment around these sectors needs to be liberalised. Effective stimulus packages need to be prepared and funded. Considerable work has to be done to jump-start the service sector. And a lot of work on infrastructure has to take place.

These things can be done with haste. But they are more likely to be long-term projects.

Meanwhile, the island already has considerable resources at its disposal relating to tourism. If more time is needed to fire up diversification efforts, there is little reason why diversification of the tourism sector itself cannot happen.

This means having agencies like Tourism Tobago and the Tobago Festivals Commission working together at creating solutions. There is a need to ensure the tourism product is diverse and competitive, going beyond the traditional sun-sand-and sea approach, and also embracing all-round packages that maximise use of the island’s cultural capital. The idea of a Tobago Carnival should be taken seriously.

While our borders are closed and we are in the middle of a terrible spike in covid19 cases and deaths, the rest of the world is speedily moving on.

Mass vaccination campaigns are happening in the US, the European Union (EU), and elsewhere. The “vaxxed” – or fully vaccinated – in the US are even being allowed to go maskless. The EU has reopened borders to travellers who are vaxxed.

Though further waves of the virus are ongoing in some parts of the world, the geographic locations that supply tourists to the Caribbean are rapidly moving on, on the strength of their vaccine resources.

After more than a year in which travel was restricted and people were cooped up at home, there could be a wave of exuberant travellers seeking experiences they have so long been denied.

That’s where being prepared comes it. Not only will Tobago have to compete with countries like Barbados – which relaunched its brand this month in order to lure visitors – but it needs to keep abreast of the basic trends that will come to define what “tourism” means.

Tobago is right now focused on its political impasse, as well as ongoing discussions about legal reform.

But if the island fails to prepare its tourism sector, it might as well prepare to fail.