Click to view full size

As geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions sim­mer be­tween the Unit­ed States and Venezuela, most of the T&T busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to op­er­ate undis­turbed. But one cor­ner of the tourism sec­tor is al­ready feel­ing the chill this Christ­mas.

In­com­ing Tour Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion (TTI­TOA) pres­i­dent Lor­raine Pouchet said sev­er­al mem­bers re­port­ed can­cel­la­tions for De­cem­ber, with at least 14 book­ings al­ready with­drawn. She said po­ten­tial vis­i­tors ex­pressed dis­com­fort over the height­ened US-Venezuela stand-off and its per­ceived spillover ef­fects on T&T. The af­fect­ed book­ings in­volve small and mid-sized trav­el groups, rang­ing from six to eight peo­ple and some­times up to 20.

“Like a fam­i­ly would come down, and some peo­ple, some­times two to ten. Clients from the US and UK are de­fer­ring their trips to Trinidad, wait­ing to see what hap­pens in the area,” Pouchet said.