- Tobago has seen an increase in year over year international tourist arrivals, making it the first highest increase in nine years.
- The majority of arrivals came as a result of a partnership with the Sunwing Travel Group.
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Tobago, the smaller of the two islands making up Trinidad and Tobago, has seen a noteworthy increase in tourist visits over in 2019, with 2020 also showing promising figures.
The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited (TTAL) presented figure, reporting 19,542 international stayovers for the year 2019, which was an 8.2% gain over 2018. The increase was marked as one of the highest in nine years. The upward trend continued into 2020 as a 21.8% gain was reported in January, with 2,805 arrivals compared to 2,303 for the same month in 2019.
TTAL’s Chief Executive Officer Louis Lewis attributed some of the gains to the rebranding of the country’s marketing campaign to “Tobago Beyond: unspoilt, untouched, undiscovered”. However, the biggest contributions were made thanks to the agency partnering with the Canadian travel group Sunwing.
With the launch of the all-inclusive Starfish Resort (a collaboration between the Sunwing Travel Group and Blue Diamond Resorts), along with added non-stop airlift thanks Sunwing Airlines, Tobago saw a notable increase of visitors from Canada. TTAL also noted smaller increases from Germany and the United Kingdom as well.
Photo: Bradley Wint/Gate Checked
TTAL’s chairman Howard Chin Lee noted in a recent joint select hearing that part of their success also lies in the fact that they promote more niche products such as carnival, sports and conferences, unlike the traditional sea, sun and sand tourism being promoted by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).
[Featured Photo: Bradley Wint/Gate Checked]
