THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris says her tenure has not been a failure. Burris, a Councillor, took charge of the tourism division in December 2021.
She was responding to a question from Minority Leader Kelvon Morris about her performance as secretary during the plenary sitting in the Assembly Legislature, Scarborough, Tobago, on March 27.
Morris questioned her inability to attract new airlift to Tobago, despite having attended three ITB trade fairs and three World Travel Markets events, overseas.
Burris, in response, said, “I am glad you asked that question, Mr Minority Leader. Unfortunately, because the Tobago House of Assembly doesn’t enjoy the autonomy that we should, this assembly cannot sign on the dotted line for new airlift if we don’t have control of civil aviation, which is under the remit of the Ministry of Works and Transport, and also we do not have the funding to encourage new airlift because most of these airlines require something to be put on the table, whether commercial support or marketing support.”
She said the $42 million allocation the THA gets annually to run the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd is “woefully inadequate for us to engage in new contracts because the current contracts already take up so much of the allocation.”
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Burris said, however, at least two carriers have expressed interest in flying to Tobago.
“What works for us is that they already have their licenses to fly into the destination and these are the people we will be actively going after to ensure that those flights can start before the end of this fiscal year.
“In addition, while we were at Routes (Americas 2025, a development forum in the Bahamas in February), we also met with two other airlines who are interested in providing additional airlift to the destination and the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago is actually assisting us in getting those airlines to be able to commence flights.”
Morris, in a follow-up, told Burris that under the former PNM-led THA, the assembly was able to add over eight new flights.
She reminded Morris that under the previous THA, there was a special line item for airlift called the rolling plan.
Burris said under that plan, hundreds of millions of dollars were allocated every financial year for the THA to pay for airlift.
“For example, under the previous secretary of tourism Tracy Davidson-Celestine, you would recall there was flight called the Gol flight that flew in from Brazil that was shared from Barbados.
“The destination spent millions of dollars for that flight and it was an abject failure. Only four, five, single-digit persons used to come off into the destination and the person who benefited greatly from that was the island of Barbados.”
She continued, “That rolling plan no longer exists so this THA is no longer receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for airlift. We only get $42 million every year under the TTAL, who is charged with paying for airlift and based on current expenses on current contracts with British Airways and Condor, there simply is no more money to pay for airlift. So no, I don’t consider my tenure a failure.”
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Saying in 2018 the PNM-led THA was able to add new flights with the same allocation and challenges, Morris wondered about the challenge in getting flights to the island.
Burris said, “Madam Presiding Officer (Abby Taylor), planes do not just fall out of the sky and land on airports. In order for any airline to fly into a destination there first needs to be an air services agreement and secondly, that airline is supposed to have a licence to fly into the destination. “
She said at this time, the THA can only have conversations with entities that have already got their requisite licences and permission to fly into TT.
“So entities like Caribbean Airlines (CAL), which is serving both TT, where we are yet to get back our number of domestic lights before covid, we have been in negotiations with CAL to add some additional flights to their roster to increase direct airlift from Tobago.”
Burris said after months of negotiations, CAL sent back to tell the THA that they did not receive clearance from central government.
“So maybe you should go to your handlers in Trinidad and indicate to them that CAL’s operations are still paid for by taxpayers. So that even before we go to airlines outside of TT, CAL has a mandate to serve both TT and to assist Tobago in growing its tourism market above all other destinations in the Caribbean.”
Earlier, Burris revealed that more than $900,000 was spent by the division on overseas trips for the period October 1, 2024 to March 27, 2025.
Morris wanted to know the cost of each of the division’s missions, the size of the contingents and a detailed description of the assignments.
TRAVEL BREAKDOWN
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1 World Travel Market 2024, London – Nov 5-7 ( ten-member contingent ) - $515, 488.09
2) Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations Summit, Barbados - Nov 13-15 (one person) - $64, 244. 97
3) Coterie Retreat, US Virgin Island and Caribbean Tourism Organisation meetings, Miami, US – Dec 6-12. Two activations – Dec 6-8 and Dec 9-12 (one person) - $34,922.65
4) Seventh China International Import Export Expo, Shang Hi, China – Nov 5-10 (one person) - $69, 369.68
5) ASM Air Service Development Training, Florida, US - Dec 3-6 (one person) - $25,836.90
6) Routes Americas 2025 and Caribbean Tourism Organsiation’s business meetings in Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 9-15 (two people) - $93,664.10
7) ITB sales missions, Germany - Feb 25 – March 5 (two people) - $124,519.10
