Chaguaramas attractions need to be better marketed

While Trinidad’s Western Peninsula has a wealth of attractions, President of the Trinidad and Tobago In Coming Tour Operators (TTITOA), Lorraine Pouchet, thinks there should be more marketing to locals and tourists alike.

“There needs to be more promoted. We would like to partner more often with the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) to conduct tours and so on.”

Pouchet was speaking with Business Day while finalising a “Stay to Get Away 2017” tour of Gasparee Caves on the Island of Gaspar Grande.

This particular trip in late July is an example of the kind of partnership Pouchet is advocating. TTITOA; through its “Experience T&T” arm, has joined with the Tourism Ministry and, in this case, the CDA, to offer discounted tours from July 1 to August 31, 2017.

“One of the challenges TTITOA has had over the years is actually meeting with the bodies responsible for development of the area. However, I recently had a meeting with some senior personnel at the CDA,” Pouchet said.

“We are going to have on-going discussions on the way forward in marketing Chaguaramas and on how best we can achieve that, using what we have.”

Pouchet’s call to maximise limited resources was echoed by the CDA’s Acting General Manager (GM), Deowattee Dilraj Batoosingh.

Referring to the more than TT $100 million debt incurred by the previous CDA Board of Directors, the Acting GM said the CDA has been using its very limited funds to make improvements to the facilities under its management.

“I’ve instructed our maintenance crew to ensure the grass on the Chaguaramas Golf Course is maintained properly; this is the only public course in Trinidad, so that the public can have a better experience. Cleaner, better maintained sites would help us to attract more visitors, who would then spend money at our tenants’ businesses, which (augers well) for our ability to generate more revenue down the line if and when those tenants decide to expand.”

Dilraj Batoosingh also told Business Day that the CDA is working on several events which are aimed at earning revenue while highlighting all that the area has to offer.

First off the drawing board and into existence is the “CDA presents Junior Golf” which runs from August 10 to 24, 2017. Children between the ages of five to 17 will earn how to play golf and get a tour of the area, once they register with the CDA by August 7. There is a TT $300 registration fee.

The other upcoming event is “Spices, The Curry Festival”, which takes place on Saturday, August 12 along the Chaguaramas Boardwalk from 2 pm to 8 pm.

The Acting GM said admission would be free while each vendor, in addition to giving out samples, would be selling plates of food “at a modest price.”

There are however, certain things which the CDA has not been able to do or which it has had to

do one but at a time, “because any extra money that we do get thanks; to our cost cutting measures and rent collection drive, goes to pay our debts.”

Dilraj-Batoosingh made it clear however that the CDA’s staff “is very committed to getting things done with what little we do have.”

An example of this, she said, was how the CDA’s boat captain and its maintenance crew have been “fixing small things on our one fairly operational boat; the other needs substantial repairs.”

“If you see that boat today, as compared to what it was like last year, it’s looking a lot more polished now. We use that boat to patrol ‘down the islands’ to help ensure that visitors and those on a tour have properly registered with us and paid the relevant fees to be in the area.”

Dilraj Batoosingh lamented that not having the $100,000 needed to repair the other boat has affected the CDA’s ability to patrol the island as often as it would like to do so.

Hence the hosting of events like the two mentioned earlier.

The Acting GM plans to hold other events this Christmas, next Easter and so on, to help the CDA pay off its debts faster while earning money to improve and maintain the places and facilities under its purview.

She expressed confidence that this would lead to increased visitor numbers, as more people discover what Chaguaramas has to offer.

For more information on activities and tours in the area, visit the “What To Do” section of the CDA’s website, www.chaguaramas.com