Carnival 2016 made $340.5 million

A Ministry of Planning and Development release said that based on its survey of departing visitors to Trinidad and Tobago last year, a total of 35, 485 visitors arrived for Carnival 2016 and spent an average of $340.5 million during their stay.

The CSO conducts an annual survey of departing visitors for the 10 days subsequent to Carnival Tuesday to monitor the expenditure patterns of visitors for the Carnival period in both islands.

Last year’s visitor arrivals and expenditure for the 2016 Carnival period were based on administrative data taken from the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security and data collected by the CSO in the survey of departing visitors during the Carnival period.

Visitor arrivals for the Carnival 2016 were monitored from January 22 to February 9, the release said. The period included the 17 days prior to the Carnival celebration and Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday.

The total visitor arrivals for that period was 35, 483 persons.

The peak period was between February 1 to February 7, the week immediately preceding Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday, during which there were 17, 925 visitors or almost 50 percent of the total arrivals for the period.

The largest number of visitors in one day, 3,267, was recorded on Carnival Thursday, February 4.

From January 22 to February 9, the breakdown showed that Trinidad recorded 33, 471 visitor arrivals and Tobago 2,012.

The 2,903 departing visitors surveyed between February 10 to February 19, that is 10 days subsequent to Carnival Tuesday to monitor their expenditure patterns for the Carnival period in both Trinidad and Tobago, showed the average expenditure was about TT$9, 597.

When the average visitor expenditure of TT$9,597 is factored into the total visitor arrivals of 35, 483, the release said, the estimated visitor expenditure for the Carnival period for Trinidad and Tobago in 2016 was a total of $340,530,351.

The release said, “It should be noted that this figure is only representative of visitor expenditure and not necessarily total contribution of Carnival to the Gross Domestic Product of Trinidad and Tobago