Chin Lee: Lack of hotels could stifle tourism

THE Marriott Courtyard Hotel was formally opened at Invaders Bay on Saturday night by Minister of Tourism, Howard Chin Lee. The 119-room hotel was built at a cost of $75 million and aims to accommodate the business traveller and provide a conference venue, according to businessman and President of the TT Chamber of Commerce, Christian Mouttet. Chin Lee warned that the country’s growth in tourism could be stifled by a lack of hotels. The Government, he said, saw tourism as a sunrise industry, saying, “We are open for business.”

He even hoped that by 2010 Trinidad and Tobago would join the top five venues in the world for business travellers and international meetings — Vienna, USA, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany  and Italy. Chin Lee said that world business travel was expected to grow over the next ten years by 50 percent, Caribbean business travel  by 96 percent, and business travel to TT by 120 percent. On hotel expansion, he said the Hilton Trinidad is to be refurbished and UdeCOTT will build a 300-room hotel on the Port-of-Spain waterfront development.

Some 381 hotel rooms will  be built at Millennium Park in Trincity and a resort hotel  in Tobago. Developer John Keith, of Pro America, noted that this Marriott hotel was one of the few joint ventures between Central America and the Caribbean. Within this region, he said, this was the third Marriott Courtyard to be built out of ten approved. Keith said his company was glad to build hotels to support Trinidad and Tobago’s bid to become the headquarters of the FTAA.