Tobago celebrates 100-mark milestone with Safe Travels stamp
March 24th, 2021
Tobago Tourism Agency
The Safe Travels stamp is pictured over Mount Irvine Resort’s beach bar – one of Tobago’s Safe Travels hotels.
SCARBOROUGH Tobago, Wednesday March 17, 2021: The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited marked a significant milestone in its efforts to promote health and safety in Tobago’s tourism industry, as the destination saw more than 100 tourism businesses being awarded the World Travel & Tourism Council “Safe Travels” stamp.
The Safe Travels stamp is the world’s first ever global safety and hygiene stamp for travel and tourism designed specifically to address COVID-19 and similar outbreaks. The recipients of the stamp are required to adopt and adhere to the practices outlined in the Agency’s Tourism Industry Health & Safety Manual, which have been vetted and endorsed by the WTTC.
Among the 100-plus Safe Travels tourism businesses in Tobago are tour guides, restaurants, tourism ancillary services and tourism accommodation, including the largest properties on the island with the majority of room stock such as Coco Reef Resort and Spa, Mt. Irvine Bay Resort, Magdalena Grand Beach Resort, Le Grand Courland, Kariwak Holistic Haven and many others.
Gloria Guevara, President and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council.
Dr Sherma Roberts, Chairperson of the Tobago Tourism Agency Limited’s board.
Louis Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of the Tobago Tourism Agency Limited.
An employee at Waves Restaurant & Bar – one of Tobago’s first “Safe Travels” businesses – observes health and safety protocols while on the job [Photo © Waves Restaurant & Bar]
Gloria Guevara, WTTC President and CEO, shared the following congratulatory statement: “Tobago is an incredibly important holiday destination, and is becoming more popular each year. We are pleased to see Tobago implementing enhanced health and safety measures that are in line with our global protocols, to ensure safe travel, and we are delighted to recognise its efforts through the WTTC Safe Travels stamp.
“We are delighted to have worked with the Tobago Tourism Agency in promoting and advancing the internationally recognised stamp, and we hope their adoption will urge other destinations to join them in restoring consumer confidence and reopening safe travels.”
As noted by the WTTC head, Tobago joins over 250 other major popular holiday hot spots around the world such as Egypt, Turkey, Portugal, Argentina, Tunisia, and Indonesia, whose usage of the Safe Travel’s Stamp helps to reassure travellers and restore confidence to travel.
Destination Tobago was one of the early adopters of the stringent health and safety protocols developed by WTTC and endorsed by the UNWTO, becoming the third destination in the entire Caribbean to successfully earn the “Safe Travels” designation in July 2020 – right after fellow regional tourism leaders, Jamaica and Aruba.
TTAL Board of Directors Chair, Dr Sherma Roberts reiterated the significance of the “Safe Travels Stamp” for destination Tobago’s tourism sector recovery:
“It has been almost one year since Covid-19 brought the tourism industry to a sudden halt globally. The Tobago Tourism Agency responded by joining the global effort to position Tobago as a safe destination in the global marketplace, and by equipping our industry stakeholders to safely and confidently serve the domestic market in the first instance, and eventually the rest of the world when our borders reopen.
While it is essential that each destination or sub-region within the international travel and tourism sector develops clear and practical protocols to enable recovery, such a united and internationally endorsed approach as presented by the WTTC’s Safe Travels stamp is even more important for Tobago, given our dependence on – and relationship with – tourism entities from all corners of the globe.”
Louis Lewis, TTAL’s Chief Executive Officer, once again encouraged Tobago’s tourism stakeholders to get on board the Safe Travels initiative, stating:
“In keeping with the global trends and a call for international safety, the Tobago Tourism Agency continues to place safety as a priority for the island, and we encourage tourism providers who have not signed up yet to contact us and attain this globally recognized stamp of travel. Together, we can reassure travellers and rebuild confidence in the industry by doing our diligence through compliance with our Tourism Industry Health and Safety Manual for Post Covid-19.”
For more information about acquiring the Safe Travels stamp in Tobago, visit the Tobago Tourism Agency’s website at www.tobagobeyond.com/safetravels
Interested applicants can also contact the Agency’s Product Development and Destination Management team via email directly at [email protected]
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