Spending goals

Trinidadians have been digging deep into their pockets to show support for their home side’s first- ever appearance at the games and, win, lose or draw, this excessive spending would not be letting up any time soon.

In interviews last week, many said they have spent more money during the build-up to the World Cup than they have ever done, even during the Christmas season.

The World Cup shopping list ranges from t-shirts, flags and Soca Warriors memorabilia to pricy flat screen televisions and other electronic equipment like DVD players and CD burners.

Newspaper sales have soared as fans want to keep up with the latest scores and special highlights that are not captured on television.

Bars and restaurants are also reaping the benefits as hundreds of dollars are being forked out on food and drinks, most of it consumed during the games. Angostura Limited has recorded an increase in sales, according to the company’s Corporate Communications Manager, Giselle La Ronde West.

“I cannot give a figure but the World Cup frenzy has spurred sales considerably,” she said.

The company has also pocketed extra cash with their Big Football Fete held at Screamers II, Pier I and Angostura Limited.

“The turn-out has been remarkable,” La Ronde West said, adding that over 600 people showed up at Screamers II for the live coverage of the games last week while hundreds more caught the action at Pier I.

Consumers are also forking out the dollars to view the games on DirecTV’s digital network. They have taken advantage of the network’s $999 special offer, down from $1299.

All thanks to them, the company’s sales have skyrocketted.

“Even now people are in a panic buying mode,” said Odette Marshall, DirecTV’s senior manager of marketing and Sales, adding that within the last week, installation crews have been under extreme pressure because of this.

With Direct TV, she said, subscribers are able to get up to eight channels showing the games. The system offers five different angles to view the games from, Marshall said.

In addition, she said, subscribers can access live statistics on each player and country, including which club they play for and their World Cup history.

Another feature on offer is that viewers can split their screens to see games that are being played simultaneously.

The major sponsor of the Soca Warriors, bmobile, has seen its revenue rise by turning the World Cup into a branding ploy. Other companies are counting on greater exposure for their ads through print, radio and television. But has this over expenditure impacted negatively on TT’s economy? Economist Jwala Rambaran does not think so.

“Although it is very hard to give a figure in terms of the impact on spending on the economy, from the top of my head I don’t think it will be anything major,” he said.

The real impact, he said is “intangible,” noting that people will be more focused on the patriotism the World Cup has brought.

“The value is not in the dollars and cents but the sense of pride it has brought to the people,” Rambaran said. For Tobago’s tourism industry though, the World Cup is hardly good news. The island is currently experiencing a 36 percent decline in the visitor arrivals last month, when compared to this same period last year.

Neil Wilson, Tourism Secretary for Tobago, at a recent meeting, said that while a total of 7,100 persons visited Tobago during May 2005, only 4,500 did so last month.

“The world Cup has encouraged people to travel to Europe rather than come to the Caribbean,” he said.

Hotels like Grafton Beach Resort, Hilton Tobago and Golden Cristle Hotel said they have not seen an increase or decrease in the number of occupants.

“The occupancy is just normal, nothing out of the ordinary and it is usually like this around this time of the year,” said a Grafton Beach official.

With all the money being spent by consumers, local entertainers who have produced “Soca Warriors” CDs, are seeing little return.

Record shops nationwide have noted that sales of the CDs, including those by soca artiste Maximus Dan and Kris Garcia are very slow.

“People prefer to buy pirated copies for $20 or $25 as opposed to buying them for $100 or $75,” said a sales representative at Cleve’s One Stop Music Shop. Even some financial institutions like Island finance have not gotten the result they expected when they offered hassle-free loans of up to $30,000.

“We expected a lot of people to have taken the loans to travel but we did not get that much of a response,” said an Island Finance manager.