Yvonne Ba­boolal

Hote­liers, restau­rant own­ers, cooks, wait­ers, farm­ers, fish­er­men, tour op­er­a­tors and even garbage col­lec­tors, com­pris­ing some 50 per cent of To­ba­go's work­force, have all been se­ri­ous­ly af­fect­ed by the se­vere re­duc­tion in vis­i­tor ar­rival to is­land, Guardian in­ves­ti­ga­tions have re­vealed. "Trau­mat­ic" and "des­per­ate" were some of the de­scrip­tions giv­en to the eco­nom­ic down­turn in To­ba­go by those af­fect­ed by the near shut­down of the tourism in­dus­try. Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Hote­liers As­so­ci­a­tion, Chris James, said some 50 per cent of the is­land's pop­u­la­tion had been de­pend­ing on the tourism sec­tor and many of them have had to be ei­ther sent home or had their work­ing hours cut down.

James said while Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Tourism Ru­pert Grif­fith said there was a 12 per cent re­duc­tion in vis­i­tor ar­rival to the Caribbean, it was worse in To­ba­go. James said in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­tor ar­rival to To­ba­go had been con­tin­u­ous­ly de­clin­ing since 2005 and there was much more to it than the Air­line Pas­sen­ger Du­ty, list­ed by Grif­fith as a rea­son. He said the lack of in­cen­tives from the Tourism De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (TDC) has turned away in­vestors and this has re­sult­ed in a short­age of qual­i­ty ho­tel rooms and choice of rooms. "Every oth­er Caribbean is­land has in­cen­tives like tax-free hol­i­days and du­ty-free equip­ment for in­vestors, ex­cept T&T," James said.

Fur­ther, the land li­cence in­tro­duced in To­ba­go three and a half years ago was on­ly now start­ing to go in­to ef­fect, he said. "There were no process­es in place to ac­quire the li­cence and this dis­cour­aged in­vestors' con­fi­dence," James said. He said the fact that T&T had not been mar­ket­ed prop­er­ly was an­oth­er cause of the low vis­i­tor ar­rival. The Hote­liers As­so­ci­a­tion rep­re­sents some 89 per cent of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly-reg­is­tered ac­com­mo­da­tions in the is­land. James said ho­tel oc­cu­pan­cy at all the prop­er­ties has hit an all-time low.

His own ho­tel, Tou­can Inn, has had 25 per cent oc­cu­pan­cy for the year and this had a rip­ple ef­fect. "Every­body, taxi dri­vers, tour guides, fish­er­men, sup­pli­ers, have been af­fect­ed," he said. "Some 50 per cent of To­ba­go's work­force de­pends di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly on tourism. Most of the ho­tels are try­ing to keep their staff but their hours have been re­duced." Nali­ni Gal­barans­ingh, ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of Grafton Beach Re­sort and Le Grande, said she had on­ly two guests for the week re­cent­ly at the re­sort. "I have not let go any­one but their hours have been short­ened...I am mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion and may have to cut staff," she said. Gal­barans­ingh said most of the restau­rant's sup­pli­ers were from Trinidad.

Nick Hard­wick, di­rec­tor of the Restau­rants As­so­ci­a­tion in To­ba­go, said the ef­fect on restau­rant own­ers had been "quite trau­mat­ic. "A lot of restau­rants have seen a 60 to 70 per cent drop in their busi­ness. "This meant send­ing staff home and putting the re­main­ing work­ers on short time. "It's a des­per­ate sit­u­a­tion for restau­rants in To­ba­go," Hard­wick said.