Rethink Carnival cuts

Certainly, questions about the ability of Carnival to be run as a profitable venture has been raised. What studies have been conducted on this national festival? What detailed analysis has been undertaken about the growth and development of the festival? Have any business models been developed? What is the participation rate in Carnival? Who is the target audience? Is it a cultural expedition or a source of revenue?

We have seen a marked fall-out in Carnival-related activities in many of our towns during Carnival Monday and Tuesday. This begs the question about the benefits of the expenditure made. Have we already or are we allowing this national festival to die?

When we talk about the Carnival sector we are really referring to undertakings that produce significant economic value, in the form of national output, employment and trade. At the heart of the Carnival sector there exists six main industry categories:

(i) steelpan;

(ii) Carnival music;

(iii) all mas (parade and street);

(iv) Carnival fetes;

(v) associated businesses; and

(vi) dedicated public administration services provided by the National Carnival Commission (NCC), including the research of the Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago (CITT). There is also a grouping of activities such as restaurants and food distribution, new media, radio; television, advertising, transport services, and telecommunications which the core Carnival industry spawns as externalities.

Writers such as Dr Vanus James have conducted very detailed studies on Carnival. Admittedly, the government’s cut of subventions appears rather parochial in not taking into consideration the potential of Carnival. This is syllogistic to Greece where the economy is expected to grow from cuts in expenditure. It just does not happen.

James points out that we presently monetize Carnival through three main avenues: domestic demand, tourism inflows, and carnivals established in the global community. Interestingly government has limited its role just to demand for infrequent performance at cultural events such as the annual Carnival shows. There is no year-round stimulus and no stimulus at all to other activities in the industry, such as the evolving education services that the private sector supplies.

In addition, he noted that much of the demand is still from the Caribbean diaspora. There is some limited advertising of Carnival, but no activity of the type or scale needed for a trade promotion initiative.

The potential of the internationalization of Carnival through the export of services is untapped. There are 180 carnivals propagated around the world by the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and associated carnivals in the Caribbean. The opportunities for the enlargement of the industry and for trade creation outside the national shores needs a national plan and investment to exploit. There has to be a systematic effort to establish links to and influence on the direction of development of the foreign carnivals through programmes developed with the domestic investment community.

There are so many issues that must be addressed with our Carnival before a short-sighted act such as cuts were implemented. If we are to be serious about Carnival and maximizing its potential we need to create a national institution dedicated to assist in the technical development of Carnival such as exists for agriculture (ADB), tourism (TDC), manufacturing and other industries.

It is important that we all acknowledge that there is a fundamental link between relevant data availability and policy formation. The former feeds the latter. There has to be a framework for collection and interpretation of the data on Carnival. The Central Statistical Office to date does not appear to have established any significant capacity to construct the satellite accounts of the Carnival sector, such as the country now does for the energy satellite group. If there is no measurement of the activities needed for sound policy design, then there will be limited or no understanding of what is taking place in the sector. We need, on a continuous basis, to be able to measure its contribution to GNP, employment, and trade.

James has reported about the contribution of the copyright sector, a significant share of which is accounted for by Carnival-related activities. He estimates that copyright accounted for nearly five percent of GDP in 2011, which is more than TT$4 billion. Many of the major copyright-yielding undertakings are properly embedded in Carnival. Among these are Carnival music and mas, and Carnival-related advertising and media, including new media.

Perhaps we need to properly plan the development of the Carnival sector, promote its growth with the requisite incentives, properly market its products, measure the activities and ensure the sector’s contribution to GDP is actually growing before we think of cutting Government’s involvement.