Talks are ongoing between the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) to ensure that those wishing to visit for the island’s Carnival from October 28 to 30 can do so by air.
THA Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transport, Tashia Burris, made the announcement yesterday while speaking to the media during the launch of the Tobago Carnival. The launch was held under the theme, ‘Ritual, Fun and Liberation’.
“I can safely say that Caribbean Airlines is on board in terms of supporting the Tobago Carnival. They’ve got some kind of sponsorship to tell the rest of the world that Caribbean Airlines is supporting the Tobago Carnival,” Burris said.
She said talks between THA and CAL are ongoing, but THA is looking at additional options to ensure people have more than one opportunity to get to the island.
“The Port Authority has already engaged and they have given their assurance that they will soon post the October timetable so that people can buy ferry tickets to come to Tobago,” the island’s tourism secretary said.
She said THA is in talks with a cruise operator who has offered to bring a cruise ship to Tobago to put people on board.
“So we are exploring all the options we have to ensure that people who come to Tobago enjoy themselves and return home safely,” Burris said.
She said Tobago can do what’s best for Tobago as the creators on the island have what it takes to execute a fantastic, mind-blowing production.
Anthony Chow Lin On (Chinese Laundry), who was also present during the launch, said: “Tobago is ready to stand on its own in terms of our creative prowess and creative expression. What we didn’t want was a situation where people were trying to dictate what Carnival should look like before we had a chance to have conversations with the people in its space, to have conversations with each other, to ask ourselves some questions.”
Burris said that among the questions the organizers asked themselves were: What does a carnival look like; should it copy a business model that seems to be working for a country that has larger economies than Tobago or should Tobago look at what it has and what makes it unique Tobago, its environment, history and culture.
“And we use all those elements to create something that we can now put our name on and say this is Tobago,” Burris said.
A full overview of the calendar of events, with over 30 festivals, was also revealed.
Minority Leader Kelvon Morris was also in attendance along with Minority Councilor Petal Daniel-Benoit. While Morris called on organizers to consider introducing contests and prizes at some of the events coming up in October.
He welcomed Wednesday’s launch. “But I welcome it today, actually I’m always intrigued by the wealth of talent that is Tobago and the cultural explosion that we have here, so I’m looking forward to what’s to come and just to encourage people. So as Tobagonians let’s give this whole carnival our full support,” Morris said.
Chairperson of the Tobago wing of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Diane Hadad, also welcomed the launch.
“It was quite pleasing for the time frames that were given to the committee and the demand that was made of them, they must have done a lot of work to get to this point in such a short space of time and the understanding that they would have to deal with logistics. and the policies that govern the entities that they would have worked with, I have to congratulate them on the outcome,” Hadad said.
