Tobago Tourism Agency clarifies information about “Tobago Beyond” brand

Posted Dec 17, 2018

The Tobago Tourism Agency Limited held a press conference at the Agency’s head office in Scarborough today, Monday December 17, to address concerns about Tobago’s brand, “Tobago Beyond”, being similar to that of another Caribbean destination.

Speaking to the media today, Chief Executive Officer of the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd, Mr. Louis Lewis, outlined the process of developing Tobago’s current brand strategy. The process began in November 2017 with local and international stakeholder consultations, which were precursors to the branding exercise that involved extensive market research.

The Tobago Tourism Agency then conducted a “soft launch” of the brand in the United Kingdom in October 2018 in both Ireland and England, a brand launch in Tobago later the same month, and an international brand launch at the beginning of November at World Travel Market (WTM) in London.

Mr. Lewis stated: “I want to set the record straight up front, that we took a very careful, studied approach to arrive at the branding for Tobago.

“What I think transpired, at best, may be an unfortunate coincidence. There are many similarities between Tobago and all the other islands in the Caribbean, so it is not inconceivable that you can find synergy between taglines chosen by other destinations.

“However, I must emphasize that at no point did we imitate any other destination, because our intention was always to stand out. Thus we are in the process of paying particular attention to the implementation of our marketing strategy to ensure that Tobago comes up as a destination of choice when people are searching for options in the Caribbean.”

The Tobago Tourism Agency CEO also indicated that in July 2018, several firms were invited to bid for the process of branding the destination. The selected firm, UK based Gravity Global, does not currently represent any other Caribbean destination.