Tourism $$ crosses the billion dollar mark

The year 2003 proved to be a profitable one for Trinidad and Tobago in terms of tourist arrivals which saw an increase of 4.8 percent between the months of January and July, compared to the corresponding period in 2002. Visitor expenditure for this year was recorded at TT $1.1 billion and approximately 95 percent of visitors polled in the recently conducted Visitor Perception Survey indicated that they would return to or recommend TT to a friend or relative. President of the Tourism and Industrial Development Company Limited (TIDCO), when he recently sat down with Business Day and Dr Brian Harry revealed these statistics as evidence of TIDCO’s success for the past year. Maintaining that the year 2003, although challenging, was one of great accomplishment, Dr Harry paid tribute to the staff at the company, as well as all the stakeholders who worked tirelessly to ensure that all challenges were met. He projected that if tourist arrivals continued in its current vein, 2004 would witness major figures in the area of 500,000 tourist arrivals for Trinidad and 100,000 visitors for Tobago. This year, Tobago saw approximately 71,000 visitors, the highest ever in Tobago’s history, with Trinidad standing at 400,000 visitors.

Dr Harry expressed his belief that there were some major opportunities for further development of the local tourism sector, which stemmed around building brand TT and making the average citizen aware of how their actions can impact the tourism product through serious awareness campaigns. He said, “individuals in TT must recognise that the future well-being of our country can very easily depend upon the way we treat our environment and the guests that come to our shores.” “One of the significant benefits of local tourism is its ability to teach Trinbagonians about themselves and their environment,” he continued. “If we can energise our people and mobilise them around culture, then we will be one step closer to becoming a developed nation by the year 2020.” Dr Harry drew reference to the issue of the disputes with the vendors at Maracas beach which erupted some months ago, noting that this conflict was the result of the efforts of TIDCO and a number of other stakeholders to put Maracas beach back on the map. “I think that as we move towards developed nation status,” Dr Harry said, “we have to begin to inculcate developed nation behaviour. Maracas requires a tremendous amount of responsibility from all Trinbagonians. It is not simply a matter of we can do whatever we wish and then blame TIDCO. “The vendors there have a responsibility and they need to meet this responsibility. We have a responsibility and we intend to meet it,” he added.

He noted that TIDCO was proactively lobbying to redesign the entire beach area, with the blessings of the Ministry of Tourism, in an attempt to place Maracas on the world map as one of the top beaches in the Caribbean region. He said, “we need the support of every Trinbagonian. It is not good enough to be irresponsible about Maracas or any other part of our country, because in so doing you are destroying the product.” TIDCO, he maintained, has developed a Sites and Attractions team within its Tourism Division, which has the responsibility of creating strategies and plans for upgrading TT’s sites and attractions. One of the company’s major accomplishments for 2003 was the successful management of Carnival activities. Carnival 2K3, as it was called, was, Dr Harry stated, considered the best Carnival ever, recording high safety scores, high praise for vendor and information booths, a successful City Ambassador Programme and TT $100,000 generated by “Carnival on de Net.” Despite global crises, arrivals for the Carnival season increased by 2,297 visitors when compared with the previous season. “This was not just a TIDCO accomplishment,” he said, “but the accomplishment of a number of groups, including the National Carnival Commission (NCC), Pan Trinbago, the Ministries of Tourism and Culture and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Calypsonians Association (TUCO).”

In 2003, TIDCO was also responsible for the facilitation of a number of trade missions as part of its efforts to expand existing export markets and penetrating new markets. The past year saw focus being placed on markets in Aruba, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, St Marten, Cuba, China, the US, Costa Rica and Venezuela. Additionally, emphasis was placed on the non-oil sector, which led to investor interest in excess of US $1 billion and a potential investment commitment of more than US $600 million. The company has also established a Marketing Unit, headed by Brian Charles, which has spent the past year enhancing existing relationships and building new ones to further promote Brand TT. TIDCO sought to achieve its mandate of marketing and promoting Brand TT in 2003 by proactively promoting inward investment, export promotion and facilitation, while developing a differentiated and high-value tourism experience and providing economic intelligence to support strategic planning and decision making.