The pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion, Al­pha Lorde, says he is not over­ly con­cerned about the UK’s new visa re­quire­ment for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als, as it will not af­fect the in­flux of UK trav­ellers to To­ba­go or in­ter­fere with the is­land’s tourism and ho­tel sec­tors.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia on Thurs­day, Lorde said he felt, “It’s more of a geopo­lit­i­cal is­sue,” adding that, “It doesn’t di­rect­ly im­pact our tourism prod­uct, be­cause that af­fects busi­ness out­bound. I think what’s more im­por­tant to me right now is the trav­el ad­vi­sories, not just is­sued in the UK, but just is­sued in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. But giv­en that for To­ba­go, a large por­tion of the would-be vis­i­tors come out of the UK, I would like to see the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs take that up as an is­sue.”

Lorde said hote­liers have al­ready seen a de­cline in book­ings, with some can­cel­la­tions di­rect­ly linked to the State of Emer­gency (SoE)—de­clared on De­cem­ber 30, 2024—and the in­creased trav­el ad­vi­sories against vis­it­ing To­ba­go. He warned that if the Gov­ern­ment does not ad­dress the is­sue with its UK coun­ter­parts, it could fur­ther hurt the is­land’s tourism sec­tor.