Tobago has welcomed a new chapter in international air travel following the arrival of Caribbean Airlines\u2019 inaugural non-stop flight from Toronto, Canada, carrying 61 passengers into the island\u2019s newly opened airport terminal.<\/p>\n
Flight BW615 touched down at the ANR Robinson International Airport at 9:28 p.m. on Sunday, October 25, arriving 27 minutes ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
Passengers were greeted by traditional Bele dancers and steelpan music, providing a distinctly Tobagonian welcome ahead of the island\u2019s Carnival celebrations.<\/p>\n
Among those witnessing the historic arrival were Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Eli Zakour, Tobago Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and Secretary of Tourism Zorisha Hackett.<\/p>\n
The weekly service eliminates the need for Toronto passengers to connect through Trinidad, a convenience welcomed by several travellers who described the previous arrangement as time-consuming.<\/p>\n
Most of the 61 arriving passengers were members of the Tobagonian diaspora living in Canada.<\/p>\n
However, Tobago’s tourism authorities have bigger ambitions for the route.<\/p>\n
Hackett revealed that TT$1.5 million had been budgeted to market the Toronto service, acknowledging that more aggressive promotion would be necessary to attract Canadian holidaymakers with no family connections to Tobago.<\/p>\n
She credited former Tourism Secretary Tashia Burris with initiating negotiations for the service several years ago, while explaining that securing the flight required funding, marketing arrangements and assessments of its commercial viability.<\/p>\n
Hackett also stressed that increased international arrivals must be accompanied by improvements in accommodation capacity and the range of experiences available to visitors.<\/p>\n
The arrival represents another milestone for Tobago’s newly opened East Terminal, which is expected to play an important role in the island’s efforts to strengthen international connectivity.<\/p>\n
With direct access now established between Toronto and Tobago, attention turns to whether the weekly service can attract enough visitors beyond the diaspora to support the island’s long-term tourism ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tobago Welcomes 61 Passengers As Caribbean Airlines Launches Weekly Non-Stop Flights From Toronto, Canada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}