Kicking tourists into shape

Over the last few years Port-of-Spain has also become the de facto commercial capital of the Eastern Caribbean, with the business flows into the country being the mainstay for hotel occupancy in all the city’s principal hotels.

Meetings and conventions are one of the fastest growing sectors in international travel and tourism, which Trinidad and Tobago, having signed the Tax Information Exchange Act with the United States, thereby guaranteeing that meetings held here are tax exempt in the US, can take full advantage of.

The new 430 room Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre is designed to be the centre-piece of the Waterfront Development Project, and will soon add an exciting new dimension to the city’s meetings potential.

All of this has just happened, virtually without much planning. Just imagine what could be achieved with some long-term integrated strategic thinking.

Tourism success is usually measured by the number of visitor arrivals, but on its own this is incomplete, since it does not take into consideration the more important measurement of visitor spend.

Obviously, this distinction will largely be determined by the type and quality of hotel or resort the visitors choose to stay in. Thus, the decision of what kind of hotels should be built will largely dictate the kind of tourism to be targeted, and the amount of revenue it will generate. More importantly it will also shape the international reputation of the destination.

At this point in time there is a very limited stock of approved hotel/guest house rooms in the country, a little more than 1,500 in Trinidad and just over 1,000 in Tobago, this by definition obviously limits the number of potential visitors, and of course, will justify the airlift necessary to bring them in. In other words, without more hotels there is a definite ceiling to any tourism growth.

Another of today’s challenges is the fragmented nature of decision making in tourism-related planning and development. Tourism in Tobago is managed, if not fully funded, by the Tobago House of Assembly, the Chaguaramas Development Authority has similar responsibility for the North West peninsula, while the obvious potential of the North and North-east Coasts is held hostage by inadequate road access.

Even more worrying the nation’s reputation for visitor safety is now faced, after the recent tragic events in Tobago, with negative travel advisories put out by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This, in turn, is liable to trigger similar public warnings from the US State Department, thus seriously endangering the effectiveness of the new campaign to promote Trinidad and Tobago.

There is therefore an obvious need for all these separate, yet tourism linked elements of Government to sit down together with the many diverse private sector stakeholders. The hotels, guest houses, and restaurants that accommodate and feed our visitors; the tour operators and tour guides, who proudly show off their country; The Manufacturers Association and the Chambers of Commerce, whose members provide much of the essential product used by the hotels and restaurants, and indeed the tourists themselves, and carefully plan for the future.

Only with such a coordinated approach will Trinidad and Tobago be able to maximise its very exciting tourism potential.

John Bell

Advisor to Tourism Minister

Howard Chin Lee