Banking on TIDCO’s numbers

If numbers are anything to go by, then the Tourism and Industrial Development Company of TT (TIDCO) has it made.

Sharifa Ali-Abdullah, Manager at Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), TIDCO, is as fastidious with her numbers on tourism as a stockbroker would be on the price earning ratio of local companies listed on the Stock Exchange. By TIDCO’s calculations, tourism, she says, can create about 87,800 direct and indirect jobs by 2020. However, before those jobs are created, she said TT needs to change the way it views tourism. “Our attitude has to change. It is not that we are rich and do not need it, because there is a definite need for tourism because of the job creation potential it has.” TIDCO’s projections, she insists, are not based on “fly by night assumptions,” which were picked from a hat, noting that the company is relying on projections done by the the World Travel and Tourism Council. (WTTC). Tourism in TT will create 66,840 direct and indirect jobs, says the WTTC.

In its publication, Trinidad and Tobago: Travel and Tourism, a World of Opportunity, the world tourism body offered employment projections to 2013 based on simulated tourism satellite accounts that were produced in conjunction with Oxford Economic Forecasting. The WTTC is the forum for global business leaders in travel and tourism. To substantiate TIDCO’s projections for 2020, the company is negotiating to have WTTC come to TT and work with them to tailor a model and conduct a study that they (TIDCO) can use. “We cannot articulate our concerns or lobby for change and dare to dream big if we do not try to escalate some of these numbers and try to work with agencies to come up with a clearer picture,” Ali-Abdullah, said. Diana Cohen Chan, President of the Trinidad Hotels Tourism and Restaurants Association (THTRA) agreed with Ali-Abdullah, saying that an economic impact study would provide TT with hard facts needed to sensitise government to the importance of tourism to the economy and how it can create employment.

Ali-Abdullah said so far, TIDCO has used the WTTC’s assumptions and found them to be quite conservative in its projections. That may be because TIDCO has seen an increase in tourist arrivals over the last couple of months and believes that this trend will continue and create more jobs. Ranjiv Shandilya, Managing Director, Chancellor Hotel, is not optimistic. Having built a hotel four years ago he said he had not been able to receive one single concession. He noted that he was currently paying 15.5 percent interest when he should be paying five percent. “There is no sensitivity by government with respect to the tourism sector and the energy sector would not be treated in the same manner.” William Latchman, of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA), said the business community lacks confidence in the figures because of crime. “The areas that create the most jobs would be the hotel industry, the agricultural sector and retail business. These three sectors are the largest employers of the unemployed and the unemployable and we need to establish facilities within our society to ensure that this can take place, but we must deal with the crime situation first,” he said.

Ali-Abdullah said the Caribbean region is portrayed by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) as peaceful, which is what makes it different from other parts of the world. “This is why people like to come to the Caribbean, because there is fear in other region’s like the Middle East and Asia.” She said even though there was a “dip” in tourist arrivals to the region after September 11, 2001, these countries have actually started seeing an increase in visitors and they are bouncing back. “I think the reason for this is that the Caribbean region is re-inventing itself in terms of the kind of tourism. A number of countries are looking at event tourism and trying to offer an experience.” She cited TT as an example, noting that while there is the typical sun, sea and sand, it has a differentiated tourism product because of its culture and the energy of the island. “If we benchmark with Malaysia which has had about 2 million visitors, it is the same kind of package they are selling — the culture and multi-cultural experience.” TIDCO is bent on tweaking its tourism goals. “Since we are looking at promoting our culture and eco-tourism, it means that we will not be building the 200-room hotels, but more eco-lodges and more environmentally stable-types of development,” she says. Additionally, she said they are also trying to work on improving the local transportation networks and increasing the number of air and sea ports.