Travel agencies in T&T are seeing a greater number of locals wanting to travel to Venezuela as tensions between the US and Venezuela have eased and business ties increase.
It has been a month and a half since the US military carried out a military attack on Venezuela resulting in President Nicolás Maduro’s capture.
Since then, the US has reopened Venezuela’s airspace, US airlines are once again flying to Venezuela and the US Government is reopening its Embassy in Caracas as ties are beginning to warm after decades of frosty relations.
Two weeks ago, there was even a high level delegation from the US Department of Energy which met acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez as business and energy ties quickly improve.
According to data provided to the Business Guardian in July 2025 from Navarro’s Travel Service Ltd, based in Port-of-Spain, 13,000 T&T nationals travelled to Margarita with Rutaca Airlines between 2023 and 2025.
While the number of T&T nationals visiting Margarita and Venezuela slowed while the US military was carrying out strikes on drug boats and Venezuela was under a blockade, since Maduro’s capture in January, travel agencies are reporting that local travellers are showing cautious interest in returning to Venezuela.
Caribbean Airlines suspended flights between T&T and Caracas last year and currently Venezuelan airline Rutaca and Copa Airlines are the airlines operating between T&T and Venezuela. Rutaca is the only direct flight to Venezuela while Copa Airlines goes through Panama.
Owner of Traveltopia, Denecia Alexis, who is based in Santa Flora, told Sunday Business Guardian that it was only Carnival week she resumed offering packages to Margarita and she is taking a wait-and-see approach to evaluate how the travel patterns between T&T and Venezuela .
Her travel agency partners with Hover Tours based in Porlamar, Margarita.
“As a travel company I am offering the packages to Margarita. I normally just do packages to post, and if persons are interested or if they are not, then they can go somewhere and choose another destination. But as for now, I believe that things have died down and there are a lot of people travelling to Margarita at this time.”
In 2025, she said she was sending five people to Margarita monthly before the US military vessels arrived in the Caribbean and tensions skyrocketed in the Southern Caribbean.
“Late last year, everything was actually shut down. Everyone was afraid to travel, but the airlines were still promoting travel. But no one was enquiring about Venezuela or anything like that. Before the situation, lots of people were going.”
Since, Maduro’s capture and the US reopening of the Venezuelan airspace and there is talk of the lifting sanctions, she said there have been people calling and expressing interest.
She said Hover Tours in Venezuela has been sending her videos and other information out of Margarita and it is obvious that Margarita and the rest of Venezuela continues to provide a very good tourism experience.
“They sent me videos where clients enjoy themselves. But not my clients, but other persons that travel. Also, I already posted for Easter vacation. I was afraid in the past but now everything is settling down over there.”
She said, “I’m seeing when they send the videos a lot of people are still traveling to there, so that just kind of gives me the enthusiasm to post the package to Margarita. It is a nice island and there are budget friendly packages to go there.”
According to a statement from Ready 2 Travel, which has its office in Arima, there has been “growing interest” in people wanting to visit Margarita in Venezuela.
“The interest has picked up recently. If somebody does ask for Margarita, however, we would provide the information check for them. Within the Arima area where we are, there has not been much traffic but people have been calling and asking. We do have packages available for people wanting to travel there. But we would say that the interest has picked up.”
The Arima-based travel agency also stated that Margarita is not as popular as other regional destinations.
“We have just one trip with Margarita but we do a lot of European tours, Panama and the Caribbean. But if someone asks for Margarita, we do provide the information. But it’s not a seller like Panama or Antigua or the other islands. There’s more chance they want to go to those islands. But if somebody wants a real deal, like less than $4,000, and they can get the all-inclusive for at least three nights, four days, they go to Margarita.”
The travel agency also referred to Rutaca Airlines being responsible for flights to Margarita.
“Apart from Margarita, they have onward connections to Brazil, to other parts of Venezuela. From there you can go to Colombia. People have been calling for Carnival weekend trips to Margarita. One or two people are showing interest.”
Ander’s Travel Agency, based in Point Fortin, said since the US intervention in Venezuela in early January, there had been an increase in locals wishing to visit Venezuela.
“There is an increase because I had a group of 18 people who went from Carnival Thursday from the 12 to the 15 and on the 15 to the 19, I also had another group. The airspace over Margarita was never closed. Rutaca was running normal flights from Port-of-Spain to Porlamar. Only one flight was cancelled after President Trump went in to get Maduro, that particular week. We also do tickets for Maturin and Caracas, mostly for Venezuelans returning to Venezuela,” the statement from Ander’s Travel Agency said.
The travel agency expects the interest to visit Venezuela to be “sustained” as the year goes along.
“It will be sustained as it was madness before all these things that happened between Venezuela and the United States. Before that incident, it did not even have the space on the planes.
“There is only one airline from Port-of-Spain to Margarita and people could not get seats for the summer. Right now, flights are opened up until May on my system, I have been selling tickets for people going up until April month which is Easter. I already sold a lot of tickets for that period to Margarita.”
