The two-rism dilemma

And it seems that some of these are coming to a head as we continue to fumble clumsily with the prospects of tourism.

Because from the time we finally woke up to tourism as a sector to provide employment and earn money most of us thought that as a Caribbean country we had to accept the tired sun and sea status because the rest of the Caribbean was exploiting that model.

But first, try to understand that the word tourism never even appeared in a local budget speech until 1987! You see, we had oil.

So we did not need to serve any people coming here to lie on beaches. We even adopted, in our insecurity, the expression “Tourism is Whore-ism”.

But when our oil bubble burst in the 1980s and the PNM handed over a bankrupt country to the NAR and the World Bank, we tried to embrace tourism. But we did not know how, and indeed, we still do not.

In our view, all we had as tourism products were Carnival and Buccoo Reef. We still have these two assets, but we are trying our best to kill both.

Because we are locked into the concept of people sitting on beaches and drinking daiquiris, we cannot open our minds to the several, and unique in the Caribbean, niche opportunities with which we are blessed. Truth to tell, we simply do not understand what the modern traveller is seeking, so we still try to develop outdated opportunities and literally work to frustrate people who seek to exploit — for TT— the blessings with which we are endowed. And we now plan to divide our tourism while most existing, unacknowledged opportunities unite the islands for the visitors.

The opportunities which we do not market are in nature tourism, sports tourism and varied (beyond two days of Carnival) cultural tourism. And none of these niches, exploitable for our nation’s enjoyment, employment and wealth, and so appreciated in less endowed countries, needs any real capital expenditure for exploitation.

Everything is already here, like ripe mangoes, hanging low on our trees! We just cannot see it. And much of it combines both of our jewels, Trinidad and Tobago.

Both islands, but especially Trinidad, which can be described as “an island in South America” have a range of natural phenomena which we generally dismiss as bush or swamp. Our forests, our wetlands, Tobago’s Main Ridge (the oldest protected reserve in the Western Hemisphere) provide surprisingly accessible natural attractions of flora and fauna which attract hundreds of overseas visitors to our islands.

Almost 600 of the visitors who stayed at the Asa Wright Nature Centre in 2016 also travelled to Tobago and stayed there. Over 70 tourists holidaying in Tobago made one-day visits to Trinidad to Asa Wright and the Caroni Bird Sanctuary. And all this with zero inputs from any government agency.

Do you see potential for development, or is that all about “snake and mosquito”(sic)? And Asa Wright, with no government inputs, attracts a few thousand visitors, mostly from North America and Europe, “just to see birds” every year. TT does not advertise or promote this popular genre of tourism.

We have a huge potential for sports tourism, both spectator sports, and participatory events.

Our geographic position allows us to televise live sports to North America and Europe simultaneously, in quality if not prime viewing time. So why do we not have international athletic events during winter? Why have we not brought international tennis here? In the 1950s tennis legends like Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad and Pancho Gonzales used to come and play in Trinidad. In 2008, when the TTFA celebrated its centennial and England came to play, they brought about 800 supporters, who all spent about three days in Tobago before travelling on the ferry for the match.

The potential, in tennis, cricket, football, rugby (we lost an annual rugby festival to Barbados when the local organiser had to give up Tobago in frustration), golf, sports fishing, sailing and more is endless but ignored.

These are just a few of the joint TT opportunities which seem unknown to the persons pretending they are in charge now.

If we divide our marketing as is now being suggested both islands stand to lose.

At least put this strange idea out for public discussion.

Everyone might learn something!