Shas­tri Boodan

Op­er­a­tors of small ho­tels in To­ba­go have re­port­ed an oc­cu­pan­cy rate be­tween 25 to 75 per cent of their to­tal ca­pac­i­ty.

The op­er­a­tors have blamed this low oc­cu­pan­cy on the stag­nat­ing econ­o­my and the de­creased spend­ing pow­er of con­sumers.

In To­ba­go East the oc­cu­pan­cy fig­ures were sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er than To­ba­go West.

Kavi­ta Singh, one of the man­agers of Asha Eco Re­sorts at Stud­ley Park, said oc­cu­pan­cy has been at its low­est since the econ­o­my re­opened.

Singh said be­fore the on­set of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic busi­ness was do­ing well and her fam­i­ly was able to pay the mort­gage and op­er­a­tional bills.

She said right now it is a strug­gle to pay the mort­gage.

“Things are tough for peo­ple and I think that’s what keeps peo­ple from com­ing,” Singh said.

She said she was will­ing to of­fer rates as low as $100 per night per per­son to at­tract guests.

Checks at Crown Point in­di­cate that oc­cu­pan­cy was be­tween 50 to 100 per cent in some es­tab­lish­ments.

At Surf­side Ho­tel, a spokesper­son said oc­cu­pan­cy has been around 75 per cent but they were ex­pect­ing this fig­ure to in­crease for New Year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

At Jim­my’s Hol­i­day Re­sort a spokes­woman said oc­cu­pan­cy was around 50 per cent with sev­er­al can­cel­la­tions be­cause some peo­ple said they could not pay for their va­ca­tion.

Blue Hori­zon was one of the few places that man­aged to keep afloat and boast of 100 per cent oc­cu­pan­cy.

Man­ag­er Kameel Mo­hammed said Blue Hori­zon was cel­e­brat­ing 30 years in op­er­a­tion and had a lot of loy­al cus­tomers.

Vis­i­tors to the is­land said they were hap­py to be in To­ba­go de­spite the rough weath­er that led to the clo­sure of beach­es.

Alvin Dou­glas, a dive op­er­a­tor at Store Bay said there were few­er vis­i­tors than ex­pect­ed. He said his busi­ness was af­fect­ed by the rough wa­ters.

Sel­da Tin­to, a vis­i­tor from New York in the Unit­ed States, said the gov­ern­ment should of­fer some in­cen­tives to for­eign vis­i­tors.

Tin­to said she planned to spend the day at the Ny­lon Pool.

When asked for a com­ment, Chris James, the Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion in­di­cat­ed that he was un­able at the time be­cause he was board­ing a plane to trav­el.