TAPPING CARNIVAL

There is a business side to Carnival in which relatively large sums are made by Carnival bandleaders, section leaders, calypso tent and fete promoters, distributors and vendors of illegal CDs and ticket scalpers. In turn, employment is provided for wire benders, costume designers, seamstresses, tailors, security guards, watchmen, pan arrangers and tuners, truck drivers, calypsonians, backup singers, electricians and Carnival food and beverage operators at booths at the Queen’s Park Savannah. A great deal of the employment is additional and temporary, with many persons who are regularly employed taking time off for the  two-week run up to Carnival to earn an extra dollar, while others work at nights, where this is demanded of them.

Unfortunately, we have not heard of any strategies developed and put in place by the Inland Revenue Department, including the Value Added Tax Division to collect a fair share of the tens of millions of dollars which appear to be flowing around Carnival time. The Tourism and Industrial Development Company (TIDCO) should do an analysis of the earning potential of Carnival in an effort to demonstrate that it can be a profitable proposition for a relatively wide audience of budding entrepreneurs. At the same time training sessions should be organised for those who earn money from Carnival on how to keep proper accounts.

They could be taught how  they can take steps to ensure that their businesses  attract and keep customers and in the process optimise profits. It  is almost a tragedy that many of the persons, who operate these booths, have been doing so for years without being able to use the opportunity as launching pads for their own year-round businesses. Almost anyone can profit from a properly packaged training programme, with the added ingredient of motivated teachers.  The will to learn and implement what is learned must, however, be there. But should they be able, with assistance from the UWI School of Continuing Studies, to break out of this seasonal syndrome. Not only they, but the entire community would benefit as Carnival would have generated the year-round employment opportunities which were always there, but merely waiting to be tapped.