May 2016 Financial News

Cruise season brings estimated $50m to Tobago

May 23, 2016

Secretary of the Division of Tourism and Transport in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Tracy Davidson-Celestine said the 2015-2016 cruise ship season, which ended on May 3, was “one of the most successful cruise seasons in the history of Tobago.”

She was told a Post Executive Council media briefing at the Calder Hall Administrative Complex that approximately 106,000 persons had come ashore—the largest number to arrive in Tobago on cruise ships. She said passengers spent on average US$74 US a day.

Davidson-Celestine congratulated taxi drivers, tour operators, and port staff who “collaboratively (came) together to ensure that the cruise season is a successful one.”

“Our estimated calculations suggest that for that season alone, about $52.4 million was spent on the island during the particular season.

“I’m pleased that there was a trickle-down effect, and so you find that quite a bit of monies went to the small-man—the maxi and the taxi drivers, the restaurateurs, the craft vendors, the street vendors, those who are renting bicycles, and those who have bars, and so on,” she said

Davidson-Celestine said 250 to 300 passengers flew in by chartered plane from Germany to Tobago bi-weekly to join cruise ships at the Scarborough Port. A similar number disembarked from cruise ships to fly back to Germany. She said the revenue earned would help stimulate the island’s economy.

Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Monday May 23, 2016

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2016-05-23/cruise-season-brings-estimated-50m-tobago