It was a turbulent year for Tobago as the seabridge failures overshadowed all others issues.
Other events grabbing attention included the Sandal’s Resort project, the similarity of slogans used by both Tobago and Anguilla to lure visitors as well as the matter of airlift to bring more tourists to Tobago.
The sea bridge fiasco
From early January, the Port Authority of T&T’s (PATT) struggled with maintaining a consistent schedule of service on the sea bridge.
For the first three months of the year, PATT issued more than 30 news releases detailing sailing cancellations due to electrical and mechanical malfunctions of vessels and alleged sabotage on the MV Cabo Star, the lone cargo vessel servicing the route.
In February, the PATT board pulled the T&T Express—the lone fast ferry operating on the sea bridge— from the route “in the interest of public safety.” The PATT said the action was necessary as the vessel’s two and a half hour journey was now stretching to over four hours and it was “overdue for its statutory maintenance programme.”
The T&T Spirit, which had been drydocked since June 2017, was off the route as it “still had some outstanding works to address,” PATT said.
Only the MV Cabo Star remained on the route, the Authority noted.
CAL’s rescue
PATT took action to get passengers to Tobago. It made arrangements with Caribbean Airlines (CAL) to carry confirmed fast ferry passengers between the islands.
Passengers were shuttled to the airport by Public Transport Service Corporations (PTSC) buses and given a plane ride for the price of their boat fare courtesy the government.
One of the water taxis which operates on the San Fernando to Port of Spain route was pressed into service between March 27 and April 3. However, en route to Trinidad, smoke was seen coming from the vessel’s engine room. Passengers had to be taken from the vessel by the MV Cabo Star. Video of the rescue was widely shared on social media.
In April, the T&T Spirit returned to the route. By then, ferry passenger confidence was at an all-time low, an industry insider noted.
In March, when the sea bridge shut down, the then newly-appointed chairman of the Tobago Chapter of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce Claude Benoit said: “There is no credibility, people are not even thinking of coming to Tobago because they don’t know how they will get back and vice versa.”
If the importance of the sea bridge to the island’s tourism sector was ever questioned, the effects of its absence were now seen in real time.
President of the Inter-Island Transport Committee of the Tobago Chamber, Diane Hadad explained the island’s plight to the world and said: “There is a loss in business... I’m not sure how long we can hold out for ... we will take some time to recover.”
President of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association (THTA) Chris James said: “The industry’s business model had to adapt. We relied more on the domestic market for survival.”
By March there were reports that major businesses in the island’s tourism sector were bankrupt, while others faced foreclosure.
Some hotel workers lost their jobs and others had to settle for a reduced work-week as domestic tourists’ arrivals decreased.
Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Kelvin Charles apologised for the sea bridge’s woes. In April, when the T&T Spirit returned to the service, he hailed it a “wave of relief” and saw it as “a light at the end of the tunnel.”
In July, the much-anticipated passenger ferry, the Galleons Passage, arrived in Trinidad. However, it was not put into service until October as it had to undergo some retrofitting.
On its maiden voyage, Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan took to Twitter to thank “citizens, especially Tobagonians for their patience and understanding.” He said he was “confident that the challenges on the sea bridge are now over.”
However, the sea bridge woes continued.
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The Galleons Passage had to undergo repairs at sea two weeks after it began operating on the route. National Infrastructure Development Company’s (Nidco) officials said the engineers had seen “light on the bridge” and the four-and-a-half hour journey was expected to take six hours.
In October, the vessel, en route to Tobago had to return to Trinidad. A Nidco release said inclement weather caused challenges on the journey. However, a passenger’s video, which went viral, showed what appeared to be a calm sea and sunshine.
The T& T Express was still off the route, and the T&T Spirit was pulled from service in November for a brief time, as one of its three working engines, needed repairs.
Sandals in the spotlight
Although the Sandals Resorts International (SRI) project is still in the negotiations stage, it was a hotly debated topic this year.
The 900 -room project, which comprises of two resorts—one for couples and the other for families—is a campaign promise of the Dr Keith Rowley-led administration.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said once completed the project is expected to bring in US$80 million annually to the Government’s coffers and be of “significant value to the tourism industry.”
Kamau Akili, environmental consultant for Golden Grove Buccoo Limited (GGBL), the state enterprise special purpose company given the responsibility to oversee the project, summing up the situation at a public meeting headlined by valuator Afra Raymond at the Scarborough Public Library earlier this month, said: “Never has there been so much interest in a project and never has there been so much talk about a project at this stage . . . although none of the details is secret.”
According to GGBL’s project’s application for a certificate of environmental clearance (CEC), the two resorts are to be located on the Golden Grove and Buccoo Estates. Both are mangroves areas and the Buccoo Estate is one of three areas, in this country protected under the Ramsar Convention and designated as Wetlands of International Importance.
However, Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment Kwesi Des Vignes pointed out that the Ramsar agreement provides guidelines for development and warned Tobagonians not to listen to “alarmists.”
The project has already faced legal action.
Afra Raymond, under the Freedom of Information Act, took the government to court to get details on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the hotel conglomerate and the Government. A day before the case was to be heard the government released the MOU.
Now that the details are public, the project faces more scrutiny as questions on its actual location, the number of jobs for locals and benefits to the economy are being raised.
Another tourism fiasco
The very recent issue of the perceived similarity between Tobago’s destination brand, Beyond Ordinary and Anguilla’s tourism campaign, Beyond Extraordinary, is being debated by many including politicians.
TTA CEO Louis Lewis said: “There are many similarities between Tobago and all the other islands in the Caribbean, so . . . you can find synergy between taglines chosen by other destinations.”
The Anguillans have put the issue to rest, but Tobago’s Opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Patriots, still has questions. The representative for Parlatuvier/L’Anse Fourmi/ Speyside Farley Augustine wants to know how much the branding exercise cost and if Tobago will be refunded a portion of the money.
There were some shining lights in the tourism industry, however. Among them was the TTA’s successful negotiation with Sunwing Tours to begin operations in Tobago.
Sunwing Airlines Inc. made its inaugural trip to Tobago on December 20.