By Jasminee Sahoye

Tobago tourism officials want Canadians to know that the island is ready and open for visitors to experience their unique exotic destination and to use the island as their ultimate destination for weddings and honeymoons.

A team, which includes the administrator of the Division of Tourism and Transportation, from the 116-square mile island, visited three cities in Canada, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto during a road show aimed at creating awareness.

“We absolutely feel that Canadians still have high affinity for Tobago as a destination, it’s affordable, it’s nearby, a culture and language are similar but what’s unique about Tobago, it offers a complete package product of an exotic destination… We have been looking at our analytics online through our website and Facebook fan pages and it tells us that Canadians are looking at us and they are interested in us,” said Avion Hercules, Marketing Manager of the tourism division.

She said they are partnering with a number of tour operators in Canada, in an effort to increase the number of arrivals of Canadians to Tobago.

Administrator, Division of Tourism and Transportation of the Tobago House of Assembly, Claire Davidson-Williams said that in an efforts to increase the number of visitors to the island, they have been in talks with two Canadian airlines for have direct flights from Canada to Tobago.

She added that the writers, travel agents and tour operators they met during the three stops demonstrated enthusiasm in the Tobago experience.

Hercules said the Tobago tourism and transportation division works closely with the twin island ministry of tourism and they collaborate on a number of tourism ventures.

“The ministry of tourism is the ministry for the republic of Trinidad and Tobago and their  implementation arm is the tourism development company.  We are guided by the tourism development act that says that Trinidad and Tobago will work together in the promotion of Trinidad and Tobago.  I know for a fact that they are planning another road show very shortly and I expect that Tobago will participate in the Trinidad and Tobago road show, the marketing manager explained.

Among the special guests at the road show’s last stop in Toronto were the consul general of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Vidhya Gyan Tota-Maharaj and two of Tobago’s entertainers, David Reid and Lornette Nedd-Reid.