TTAL: Tobago to launch new heritage video on National Geographic

TOBAGO was expected to launch on Thursday, a new video on National Geographic highlighting the island’s culture and heritage.

The island is also expected to have a 12-page Christmas spread on a food travel publication in the United Kingdom.

Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL) executive chairman Alicia Edwards said so in an interview on Tuesday at the World Travel Market (WTM), London, UK. The interview was posted on the Office of the Chief Secretary’s Facebook page.

Edwards was among the island’s stakeholders who attended the prestigious international trade show at the ExCel London exhibition and convention centre. It ended on Wednesday.

Heartened by the strides Tobago has continued to make at the WTM, Edwards described the event as a “huge shopping expedition.”

She said, “When you come to WTM, it is really the opportunity for you to have a whole range of options and projects forced at you…we are meeting with people who we have worked with before, people who we may want to work with.”

But Edwards said the real work would start when the team returned to Tobago.

“We now have to sift through all of the opportunities that have come. We now have to evaluate them and align them in terms of where we want to go and the things we want to achieve for the year and then we have to start actioning those plans by putting resources and people there.”

She said, based on what transpired at last year’s WTM, Tobago hoped to continue that pattern of success.

“When we came in 2022, we had quite a lot of meetings but then when we got back home, we were able to identify about four or five big projects and opportunities that we wanted to come out of it.”

Edwards said, at this year’s WTM, the team was able to run some beautiful campaigns with a number of small operators.

“It is not just what happens at WTM but how does the agency follow up and action those plans. We have done quite well last year and we are hoping to continue that success in the year ahead.”

THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris believes Tobago brought a distinctly unique flavour to the WTM.

“Tobago consistently has to show up in the places that I think we can stamp our special Tobago brand on the rest of the world,” she said.

Burris said Tobago made a point of bringing to the WTM, the island’s tambrin and reel and jig dancers “because I think it is very important for us to continue to remind people why Tobago is the greatest little island on the planet, full of flair, full of culture, full of history and definitely one of the most beautiful places on the earth.”