CARNIVAL boom

Trinidad and Tobago might be in the throes of an energy boom but few people know about   another one taking place: Carnival. According to the Tourism and Industrial Development Company’s (Tidco) Carnival 2004 report,  all socio-economic indicators used to assess the national festival show that the successes achieved during last year’s festivities have laid the foundation for a successful Carnival 2005 and possibly beyond.

Prepared by Tidco’s economic intelligence unit, the report shows that approximately 40,455 visitors came to TT for Carnival 2004 — and spent a total of $184 million. Each visitor to TT during Carnival 2004 spent an average time of 16 days in TT and each visitor spent an average of $306 daily — a third of this on entertainment and a quarter of this on food. Approximately 46 percent of visitors to TT during Carnival came from the United States. Caricom accounted for the second highest number of visitors with 19 percent. Daily expenditure by visitors from the major markets shows that Caricom visitors spent the most money during their stay in TT — $465. 

The second biggest daily spenders were Germans who spent $422 daily, followed by US visitors with $365 daily. British and Canadian visitors spent $320 and $121 daily, respectively. When compared to other Carnivals such as Toronto’s Caribana and Britain’s Notting Hill, the highest patterns of expenditure in TT Carnival were entertainment (32 percent), followed by accommodation and meals (27 percent) and shopping (16 percent). This is due to the fact that TT’s  Carnival is held over a longer period than its foreign counterparts “allowing visitors to spend more time attending accompanying events.” In terms of age, 90 percent of all visitors are adults — with 27 percent between the ages of 50 to 64. The 40 - 29 age group is next with 22 percent, followed by the 30 - 39 age group with 21 percent.

More than a third of all Carnival visitors are well-educated (37 percent) which implies that they have a higher level of disposable income or higher spending power. At least 37 percent of visitors to TT’s Carnival are senior executive or middle management professionals which suggests that this number is expected to increase this year and beyond. Accommodation seems to be one of the main drawbacks to the increasing number of persons coming for TT Carnival. The report estimated that the nation’s current hotel room stock is just over 2,500 and “it is not surprising that most visitors stay with friends and relatives.”

Tourism Minister Howard Chin Lee recently indicated that all hotels in TT are booked to capacity for this year’s Carnival celebrations. During last month’s Tobago House of Assembly (THA) election campaign, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Government would address the issue of more hotel rooms in Tobago in the 2005/2006 Budget. Even the issue of safety, despite recent travel advisories by the US and British governments, appear to be a non-issue.  According to the report, “nine out of ten tourists feel safe at Carnival time” in TT. The popular JourneyMart.com  Web site that is widely used to get destination information states: “On the whole the Carnival is safe for tourists and the warmth of the people make you feel quite at home.” On the willingness of tourists to recommend TT’s Carnival to other potential visitors, 95 percent of those surveyed said they would do so.

2004: Cruise passengers take dive but tourists keep coming

Finally...tourists tick off TT

By Vernon Khelawan

Between January and September 2004, tourist arrivals in Trinidad and Tobago recorded a high of 328,047, reflecting an eight percent increase over the year before. Cruise passenger arrivals on the other hand, dropped 12.2 percent over the same January-September period of 2003. Total number of cruise visitors registered only 29,448. The forecast for this year is for upward movement in both areas, according  to Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO). While tourist arrivals to all regional destinations were up, TT was among those islands that suffered decreases in cruise passenger arrivals – Curacao (21.5%) and Martinique (41.5%). The other being Bermuda (8.8%.)

In isolation, these cruise figures may not mean a great deal, but when put into a Caribbean perspective, they however  reflect a growing trend towards a revival  of the tourism industry in the region. Tourism Minister Howard Chin Lee is very upbeat about the industry, moreso as it concerns Tobago, which saw its largest ever number of arrivals last year. In daring to forecast for 2005, Minister Chin Lee said all indications were that there would be a general all-round increase this year. With the recent opening of The Courtyard at Marriot at Invaders Bay and the planned Carlton-Savannah due to be opened in 2007 and a Holiday Inn hotel at Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago is positioning itself to demand a larger piece of the Caribbean tourism pie.

The CTO  has estimated that tourist arrivals to the region grew by seven percent in 2004 to reach 21.8 million, while the cruise passenger visits increased by an estimated 13 percent to reach 20.5 million. In tandem with these figures, Smith Travel Research, the international hotel performance analysts, reported that based on their sample of Caribbean hotels in 11 CTO member countries, average room occupancy for 2004 was 67.9 percent compared to 62.7 percent in 2003, while average revenue per available room increased by 16.4 percent to (US)$96.14 last year. According to the CTO these figures are both record numbers and which translates to a gross expenditure by these visitors of some (US)$21 billion. It must be understood that the recovery of the region’s tourist industry after 9/11 started earlier than in other parts of the world. As a matter of fact the CTO has said that for the two-year period 2003/04 combined tourist arrivals to the region grew by some 15 percent, compared to 10 percent for overall world tourism.

A weakened US dollar has been given as a reason for the rapid upsurge in Caribbean tourism. Caribbean vacations have become less expensive for people coming from outside the dollar area, simply because Caribbean products are priced in US dollars. Since the European vacations are now more expensive for Americans, the Caribbean has once again become an attractive proposition. The CTO also attributes the rise to the fact that the “Caribbean has an enviable perception as being a relatively safe region, which is a tremendous asset in these days when consumers are more and more concerned with their safety. We think that those two factors remain with us as we look into the future.”

But the organisation expressed some concern about the price of oil and consequently refined fuel, which has impacted negatively on the airline industry. “How that industry performs, the final impact that high fuel prices have upon the performances of those airlines will in some measure determine how well the industry does this year,” added the CTO. As for the cruise industry, it is not expected to do as well as in former years said the CTO. While there was a double digit increase in capacity in the past few years, increase is being put at a conservative five percent this year. “So while expect growth in the cruise industry to continue – and cruise industry executives are very bullish upon that – we do not expect the same level of growth as experienced over the last two years,” added the CTO.