Airbnb drive good news

News coming recently from Airports Authority of T&T general manager Hayden Newton, stating that Trinidad and Tobago’s Airbnb facilities are attracting a significant amount of attention from visitors, is encouraging for the tourism sector. So expansive have the results been that the Airbnb lodgings are outdistancing traditional hotels and guest houses, Mr Newton has noted.

The AATT boss says the recovery has been “robust” after the shutdowns of the COVID-19-period, in which travel was at a minimum during periods, and totally non-existent when the country’s entry points, airports and seaports were completely shut down.

“We, at the Airports Authority, we have achieved growth in terms of passenger numbers that were, in fact, far exceeding what we forecast,” Mr Newton said in an interview with the Business Guardian.

The AA manager made the point that in 2O24 “we are back to the pre-COVID numbers.” The good news is that Mr Newton says the authority is “not sitting and doing nothing but working with the Ministry of Works and Transport in terms of ensuring that we are able to influence passengers from various destinations to come to Trinidad and Tobago.”

The international tourism agencies predicted that there would be an increase in travel by people who were locked into their countries, cities and towns during the COVID-19 period, once the restrictions on travel were removed.

“Maybe it’s the fact that we have a growing Airbnb market where some of the young people from various countries internationally are coming and staying for 10 to 15 days in Tobago and in Trinidad,” Newton said.

Further, he made the point that young travellers in particular were using the Airbnb options rather than the traditional hotels and such facilities.

For many decades, Trinidad and Tobago has ignored and or not fully taken advantage of the Caribbean location of this country, one of the most attractive and popular tourism destinations in the world. The fact is that succeeding governments and the private sector have failed to develop the natural attractions and those which have been created by the T&T culture in a range of areas.

As an indication of the size of the industry, the World Tourism Organisation estimates that 1.1 billion tourists travelled in the first nine months of 2024 as the global tourism sector recovered up to 98 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Specifically, with regard to what is happening with the spreading of the Airbnb sector here in T&T, is the potential for opening other tourism attractions to accompany the sea and sand and the luxury of hotel accommodation. Now, it’s not a question of ignoring the hotel sector, which will continue to have its dedicated visitors coming for that kind of service experience.

Moreover, clever hoteliers will have to respond to the competition from Airbnb stayover visitors and that can only mean many more options for the visitor. It is known in the international tourism industry that increasingly, visitors travel to get differing cultural experiences, which is surely to be facilitated by the Airbnb stayovers.

The times ahead are going to be challenging in all of the tourism sectors, the fact being that other Caribbean destinations are ahead of T&T in tourism. Any new initiative T&T develops, therefore, can only help our cause.

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