Tobago Carnival is in full swing, with the island seeing an influx of masqueraders and feters ahead of the main events.
Over the weekend, Tobago hosted Roxglo, a night mas celebrating the island’s tradition of mud.
As demand for travel to Tobago increases, Secretary of Tourism, Antiquities and Creative Industries Zorisha Hackett is advocating for additional flights to accommodate more revellers.
Speaking to the media following the arrival of Caribbean Airlines’ inaugural flight from Toronto on Sunday, she said last-minute Carnival revellers should not be left out.
“This week, we want some more flights on the ground to get the spontaneous Carnival babies over because we have a lot of persons, you know, they get the vibe, and they suddenly want to come over, so we are going to be speaking to Minister again in the morning.”
Approximately 60,000 guests are expected for Carnival.
“We already envision we would need two jets per day, at least something in the morning, something in the evening, to take up, you know, and ramp up on getting persons to Tobago, but more importantly, how to get them back over after the weekend because that is always the challenge.”
On Monday afternoon, Caribbean Airlines confirmed in a statement that an additional 1,000 seats would be made available on its domestic schedule for Tobago Carnival.
This is in addition to the 7,000 extra seats previously made available.
Meanwhile, Hackett is looking forward to seeing the results of the creative marketing of Destination Tobago and Tobago Carnival.
“What we saw coming out of this plan for Carnival is a lot of young persons resident on island, resident in twin sister, Trinidad, and in the region, reaching out to us, you know, just asking for them to give us some passes. When they’re going, they, without even building out a marketing strategy for themselves, I am talking about business model, they have been telling us, just get us out there.”
Along with Friday’s Roxglo Mud Mas, several fetes and smaller Carnival events are taking place in the lead-up to J’ouvert, with traditional and pretty mas set to take over the streets of Scarborough.