By KARL E CUPID Sunday, August 20 2006

The continued viability of Tobago’s tourist industry is heavily dependent on the diversification of its visitor market away from the United Kingdom and Europe.

According to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Secretary of Tourism Neil Wilson, the very survival of the island’s tourism sector is hinged on its ability to attract visitors from the United States of America and, moreso, the domestic market.

“If it is that we are going to continue to lose business from the UK market, because of whatever the conditions for whatever reasons, we have to look for some alternative!” he stressed.

“We have to diversify that dependency (on the UK/Europe market), we have to move away from that dependency, if it is that we are going to survive and if the hotel industry is going to continue and it’s going to progress and to advance.”

In fact, Wilson contended that some hotel establishments might have folded were it not for the thriving visitor market from Trinidad. Also, he added it has been proven that the average Trinidadian visitor spends much more that a visitor from Britain.

“As it is, if we did not have that domestic tourism — that thrust in domestic tourism, I feel that a number of hotels would have been in serious, serious trouble by now,” he asserted. Wilson was responding to a Sunday Newsday query following Wednes-day’s meeting of the Tourism Standing Committee at the Blue Haven Hotel, in Bacolet, Tobago.

The Tourism Secretary confirmed a report in Wednesday’s Newsday that there had been an overall decline in visitors to the island during the current ‘summer’ vacation period as compared to last year.

Explaining that this decline was not only confined to the summer tourist season, Wilson reported that figures up to last month indicated there had been a 16 percent decrease in visitor arrivals to Tobago, in comparison to the corresponding period last year.

He identified the crime situation and the question of inadequate airlift into Tobago as just two out of a combination of factors that would have contributed to the decline. With respect to the latter, he reported that the THA was currently in discussions with two US-based airlines, Delta and Continental, on the issue of direct flights from the US to Tobago.

In this regard, he said Delta was expected to start a service to the island in February. Coupled with the thrust into the US market, Wilson stressed that the THA would intensify its aggressive, direct promotion of Tobago on the Trinidad market — a move that it had only initiated for the first time earlier this year.

As things stand at present, he noted, the crux of the island’s tourist promotional thrust rests with the Trinidad market. “It’s the first time in a long time that we have promoted Tobago to the Trinidad market and we will continue to do it; we will accelerate it, particularly once we get those additional fast ferries where we have additional capacity, we will accelerate the promotion of Tobago as a tourist destination on the Trinidad market,” he told Newsday.

Wilson added that most of the Caribbean destinations, including Grenada, Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent, would readily admit that “their biggest market is not the UK, it is Trinidad. And I am saying that if they could benefit from Trinidad, why can’t we benefit even moreso based on our proximity and the ties and the links that we have between Tobago and Trinidad? It’s one space!” he asserted.

“So the crux is on the local market,” he acknowledged, noting, “Had it not been for Trinidad, some of those Caribbean tourist destinations would not have advanced to the stage that they have.”

On the question of the crime situation in Tobago, as it negatively impacts on the island’s tourism sector, Wilson stressed, “We cannot bury our heads in the sand; crime has had an effect, we cannot say that that (crime) is not a factor. I told the Prime Minister that it is a factor,” he said. “But I feel that we cannot continue to focus and harp on crime in a negative way,” he warned.

“I am saying it happens, but then let us move on; let us move on and do the positive things that would allow people to want to come to Tobago!” Wilson advised.