Chin Lee promises TT will surpass Barbados

In welcoming members of the international media and in his attempt to avoid “sounding like a politician on a political platform,” Minister of Tourism Howard Chin Lee briefly revealed plans to develop a tourism and industrial park in Trinidad and Tobago, at a breakfast reception held at the Hilton Trinidad, yesterday. “We will surpass Barbados soon in becoming the business and events capital of the Caribbean,” the Minister boasted as he addressed various media representatives from Germany, the United States, Costa Rica and Canada who are here to cover TT’s Carnival 2004. Chin Lee said that the expected visitor arrivals for Carnival was 47,000, an increase of 11,000 over the previous year. As a result of the growing increase in visitors, he said there was a need to “create a business and conference centre to increase room capacity making TT a three and four-star capital.”

He said that the Tourism and Industrial Park would come about through specific investments, legislature and effective marketing strategies. “We are approaching it two-pronged by improving infrastructure and marketing, pinpointing Trinidad and Tobago as the centre for tourism.” He also added that $62M has been allotted to TIDCO (Tourism and Industrial Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago) from the yearly budget and that $350M would be required “for the next three years” to accomplish the Ministry’s plans. “We are bringing this project to Cabinet so that money can be brought forward to ensure the brand of Carnival here is known throughout the world.”

TIDCO President, Dr Brian Harry, who defined the colloquial “lime” for his audience, saying it is a very unstructured way of hanging out and where everything is discussed, said that foreign media representatives were doing an excellent job in marketing TT abroad. In an interview with Sunday Newsday, US public relations personnel for TIDCO, Cheryl Andrews, said that “more calls are coming in to TIDCO” as a result of marketing efforts to promote Trinidad Carnival in the US. “As a matter of fact the cover story of the current issue for Islands magazine, a national US magazine is about Tobago.” German representative Biki Khurana said that visitor arrivals to Trinidad from German-speaking countries have increased by 80 percent. Khurana added: “Business-wise, Trinidad is number one in the Caribbean.”