MARKETING TOBAGO KEY TO GLOBAL LEVERAGE

However, Chin Lee’s already successful marketing of Tobago, achieved while he was in London heading a delegation to the recent World Travel Market there, will mean more jobs in Tobago. He should also seek to convince Tobagonians that the opportunities presented to them are far greater than a few more jobs.

Chin Lee should try and market the idea of creating small businesses — footwear, hats, foodstuff, costume jewelry, jams and jellies, shirts and blouses — made from domestic produce and materials. This initiative will not merely stimulate more employment but additional revenue to the State.

Entrepreneurs in Tobago, on the other hand, should seek to capitalise on the increasing tourism interest in the island and venture into increased and imaginative business, with the initial market being the visitor traffic to the sister isle — all with the ultimate goal of exporting goods and services to the several areas and districts from which the tourists come.

But Tobagonians can begin by seeking to interest the visitors in things Tobagonian in much the same way that the Caribbean visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe is bombarded with British- and European-produced goods and services, in addition to the earlier exposure as part of the Commonwealth and as former colonials.

The marketing must not begin and end, however, in Tobago. It should be pursued in the major travel markets in which the visitors live. The required effect can only be achieved through Government involvement. We have to take advantage of the steadily increasing visitor interest in Tobago and the Caribbean and seek to attract industries based on this interest. Marketing will be the key.

Chin Lee has also spoken of an expression of foreign interest in the island’s hotel industry. Steps should be taken to ensure that a percentage of the shareholding in new hotels and/or guest houses be reserved for domestic investors. In this way, profits can be retained in Tobago and further assist in building the island.