JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Tobago tourism hit hard by COVID-19

by

1943 days ago
20200325

Sto­ry by LOYSE VIN­CENT

 

Tourism stake­hold­ers in To­ba­go say they have to go back to the draw­ing board as they are forced to watch their earn­ings dis­ap­pear as a re­sult of COV­OD -19.

On­ly yes­ter­day CEO of the To­ba­go Tourism Agency, Louis Lewis, an­nounced that the in­dus­try will suf­fer ap­prox­i­mate­ly 88 mil­lion dol­lars in loss­es due to the fall­out from the dis­ease. Those di­rect­ly in­volved say they are look­ing for a light at the end of the tun­nel.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to­day with a cou­ple of the en­tre­pre­neurs who op­er­ate at the Store Bay Beach fa­cil­i­ty. They told us that on a nor­mal day, the fa­cil­i­ty would be alive with vis­i­tors, ven­dors, and even those seek­ing es­cape, but there was no one to en­joy the beau­ti­ful wa­ters and tran­quil scene.

Shop own­er, Martha Archer has been in busi­ness for 25 years. When she spoke with Guardian Me­dia to­day, she was in the process of pack­ing away the goods at ther shop, De­light­ful Plea­sures, in­def­i­nite­ly. 

“I am just here to take down some goods and put them in a bag so that they won’t ab­sorb so much dust,” she ex­plained. “I an­tic­i­pate it is go­ing to be a long haul. As for what is go­ing to hap­pen for me from here I’m not sure, be­cause I don’t know what will hap­pen in terms of mov­ing for­ward.”

Artist An­tho­ny McKen­na has been sell­ing paint­ings in the Pi­geon Point area for over eight years. He said he would re­main op­ti­mistic.

“Well, as you can see, there is no one around and I de­pend on the tourist for my busi­ness,” he said. “Things have dwin­dled down to noth­ing, but I am here still do­ing my work.”

McKen­na said he lives with­in walk­ing dis­tance from the area and he plans to con­tin­ue paint­ing and ex­pand­ing his port­fo­lio un­til con­di­tions im­prove

Mean­while, the own­er of “Jim­my’s Guest House” at Crown Point, Ly­la Mustapha, was less hope-filled.

She re­vealed that all of the sin­gle, two- and three-bed­room self-con­tained units she has on of­fer are va­cant. Ly­la Mustapha de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion as trag­ic and said she is still look­ing for a way to main­tain staff, while stay­ing in busi­ness un­til con­di­tions im­prove. 


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored