Chin Lee predicts: FTAA will boost TT tourism overnight

TOURISM in Trinidad and Tobago and revenues into the country will increase overnight once this country becomes the location for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (Secretariat). This was the prediction of Tourism Minister Howard Chin Lee when he spoke with Newsday at the Port of Port-of-Spain on Wednesday. With the massive frame of the cruise ship MS Braemar towering behind him, Chin Lee reflected upon plans by the Urban Development Company of TT (Udecott) to construct a hotel and an international conference centre along Port-of-Spain’s waterfront once TT wins its bid for the FTAA Secretariat. “My views are of an international conference centre in Trinidad, that will increase tourism overnight. Part of the plan by Udecott is to use the waterfront to create a 300-400 room hotel together with an international conference centre on the waterfront,” he said.

Within recent months, Trade Minister Ken Valley and Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift have been spearheading overseas missions to North and Latin America to rally support for TT’s FTAA bid. TT needs the support of 18 of the 34 FTAA nations to become the location of the FTAA. This country currently has the support of 14 Caricom nations, Venezuela and Costa Rica. Last week,  Costa Rican Ambassador to TT, Carlos Echeverria, pled-ged his country’s support to lobby Central Ameri-can nations behind TT. Gift explained that this pledge was obtained via a quid pro quo arrangement whereby TT encouraged Caricom nations to throw their weight behind former Costa Rican president Dr Miguel Angel Rodriguez’s candidacy for secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS). Caricom support for Rodriguez was communicated to the Costa Rican Government by Caricom chairman and Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson on December 16. Chin Lee also spoke of plans to transform TT into “a home port” whereby tourists would arrive by air and sea and have easy access to all parts of the country.