Click to view full size

US an­ti-drug and hu­man-traf­fick­ing se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures may be help­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go curb crime, but tourism da­ta sug­gests To­ba­go is al­ready pay­ing the price.

Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (TH­TA), Regi­nald MacLean, told Guardian Me­dia that ho­tel oc­cu­pan­cy for the Christ­mas pe­ri­od is well be­low nor­mal, with fig­ures rang­ing from 56 to 73 per cent, when the is­land would typ­i­cal­ly be op­er­at­ing at full ca­pac­i­ty.

On Tues­day, To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Mi­nor­i­ty Leader Kelvon Mor­ris al­so warned that in­creased US mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty in and around Trinidad and To­ba­go could have se­ri­ous con­se­quences for To­ba­go’s tourism sec­tor, cau­tion­ing that the is­land risks be­ing per­ceived as un­safe by vis­i­tors dur­ing its peak sea­son.