A new 50 room eco-friendly resort is to be opened on the Caribbean island of Tobago. To be known as the Immortelle Nature Resort it will occupy 100 acres of what was once a cocoa plantation, 700 feet up in the island’s hills.The new resort, due to open in 2006, will be a haven for soft adventure and nature enthusiasts including mountain bikers, walkers and bird watchers. The developer, Dr Kenny Watson, claims that for every tree cut down to build the resort, two were planted in its place and all the lumber had been sourced from sustainable plantations around the world.

At the same time the island’s Footprints Eco Resort at Culloden Bay has plans to add extra rooms as well as an interpretive centre designed to educate visitors about Trinidad and Tobago’s eco tourism product. The resort has incorporated island architecture, employs local staff and grows and serves organic produce.

Tobago, named as the Caribbean’s Leading Destination in last year’s World Travel Awards where the island’s Blue Haven Resort also won the Caribbean’s Leading Eco Resort Hotel, has been ranked as one of the top ten Eco-Wonderlands in the World in a recent US survey.

The survey said that Tobago was a ‘haven for wildlife’ where the relatively small forest hosts a formidable variety of bird life, more that 100 species of butterflies, 24 species of non poisonous snakes and more than a dozen species of bats. It is also an increasingly popular scuba diving region with Angel Reef, Flying Reef and Little Tobago Island all memorable dive sites.

Nova Alexander, Account Manager of Trinidad & Tobago’s UK Tourism Office, said:

“Today, tourism to Tobago is booming, revenue yields are improving and that has impacted positively on the employment level on the island. Each year the number of visitors coming to the island to experience its many eco sites increases, and the tourism office sees it as an increasingly important attraction, while resort owners and hoteliers are all looking to take advantage of the boom.”

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