CEO of the Tobago Festivals Commission Limited Kern Cowan is tonight hailing the 4th edition of the recently concluded Tobago October Carnival as an overwhelming success.
Mr. Cowan told TV6'S Elizabeth Williams, the Commission believes the event can be further improved to make it even better in 2026.
00:00You can always do something differently. We can always do something better. I think the learning curve as a, you know, a baby at four years, you know, did give us some insight in terms of better road management, more articulation in terms of communication and different things. But I think we had a good place for good growth going forward.
00:19Mr. Cowan spoke to TV6 News at our base in Scarborough. He said visitors to the carnival were wide ranging.
00:27We have so far have business from Germany, from the UK, from France. We have a wide range of people across the diaspora as well. We have from the US, Miami, Philadelphia, New York in particular was a large number.
00:46So we are seeing a lot of international visitors as well as we had a lot of Caribbean visitors as well from Grenada, St. Vincent, all of those carnival oriented environments had representation right here in Tobago also.
01:01Meantime, President of the Tobago October Carnival Association, Dexter Sandy said the wet lease of an aircraft in time for the October Carnival of 2026 is one to consider and can be a collaborative effort between the Tobago House of Assembly and the Caribbean Airlines.
01:19To increase capacity Monday, I think one of the things we can look at is when we're missing an aircraft for the period, 10-day period, which will come about five days before and five days after the carnival.
01:33I think it's something like that will assist in moving capacity and we need to move over and through the days, especially between the weekend till this day and straight to the Monday day after.
01:44And with over 80,000 people participating in the carnival activities in Scarborough, Mr. Cowan says the festival exceeded expectations.
01:56Cowan said from an economic and socio-economic standpoint, there is something to derive from the festival.
02:04Well, we have crossed the mark in terms of the number of masqueraders that we have been able to accommodate on this route.
02:10So, I mean, at that stage, we are thinking about where next? Do we expand the route? How do we do these things going forward?
02:17We had an overwhelming response from the juvie to the parade of the bands.
02:22So we are excited to see what 2026 would bring.
02:25But we also have to be able to manage that from our hotel and accommodation, from our infrastructure, from our road management point of view,
02:33to ensure that we can articulate that across the board and provide the experience that is one welcoming to all visitors to the island.
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