Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the To­ba­go Tourism Com­pa­ny says since March, 51 To­ba­go hote­liers have ac­cessed the gov­ern­ment's grant to up­grade their es­tab­lish­ments.

Speak­ing on CNC3's the Morn­ing Brew on Wednes­day, Louis Lewis said plans were un­der­way for 14 more hote­liers to col­lect their grants on Wednes­day.

He said there has been a de­lay from ap­pli­cants in meet­ing the cri­te­ria to ac­cess the grant, in­clud­ing hav­ing their tax­es paid up-to-date.

Lewis said at the end of June, To­ba­go had lost an es­ti­mat­ed $85 mil­lion due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

He said the Tourism Com­pa­ny is do­ing all it can to mar­ket the is­land as it waits for lock­down mea­sures to be lift­ed.

He said To­ba­go has the ad­van­tage of be­ing a small, "green" des­ti­na­tion that is not a mass-mar­ket des­ti­na­tion and the Tourism Com­pa­ny is seek­ing to get green key cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for ho­tels and busi­ness­es and blue flag cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for its beach­es.

These cer­tifi­cates will at­tract more tourists when­ev­er the bor­ders are re­opened, Lewis said.