Tobago hoteliers' head: End of Virgin flights won’t affect tourism

BOARD MEMBER of the Tobago Tourism Agency (TTAL) and president of the Hoteliers Association Chris James on Friday dismissed fears that the discontinuation of Virgin Airlines’ flights to Tobago from Heathrow Airport, London, would affect the hotel and tourism business.

James told Newsday flights by other airlines will continue to provide services, so the end of Virgin flights would not hurt the industry.

“We are getting a Condor flight from Germany, the two British Airways flights, the JFK Caribbean Airlines flight to Tobago and two Barbados flights,” he said.

He added that TTAL plans to go to the World Travel Market in London – the leading international travel event, which provides opportunities for inbound and outbound tourism professionals – where it will be looking for more flights.

“We need to have at least five originating destinations,” James said. “We have the US, the UK and Germany. I want Canada and Scandinavia.”

In a release sent to the media earlier this week, TTAL said it would discontinue its airline contract with Virgin Atlantic for airlift between Tobago and the UK as a result of a “strategic review and realignment of the agency’s investment in airlift for the destination.

“The return on investment for the Virgin Atlantic airlift subsidy funded by the public sector has been deteriorating steadily over the years, to the point where the renewal of their contract could not be logically defended and executed,” TTAL chairman Alicia Edwards said in the release.

James said TTAL would focus on marketing other flights from London.

“We get the British Airways flight that comes to Tobago twice a week from the end of the month, October 31. It is better that we spend the money wisely and market that flight,” he said.

Virgin Atlantic resumed flights in January after two years of lockdowns due to covid19. The airline's carrier, the A330-300, with 183 economy delight, classic and light seats, 48 premium and 31 upper-class seats, landed in Tobago on January 29 ­­– its first flight since the lockdowns – with 20 passengers.

James suggested Tobago should not be dependent on one destination, noting that because of the devaluing of the pound, there have been estimates that travel to the Caribbean from the UK will decrease by 15 per cent.

“If you have a problem like we do in the UK, you just switch your marketing efforts to the other originating destinations, so you are not too dependent on one. That is how we have to be as a leisure destination.”

He said TTAL is already in discussions with airlines in Canada and Scandinavia.

“We are talking to airlines in these destinations and we will continue to talk to them until we are successful.”