The Trinidad & Tobago Business Guide (TTBG, 2009-10)

direct air service out of appropriate gateways
along the eastern seaboard, particularly New
York. Connections over Piarco are simply
not a practical option.
New hotels would not come at the
expense of the existing lodging sector,
although many properties desperately need
to clean up their act to become competitive.
Rather, they would enhance it by opening
up the destination to international tourism
flows that would otherwise never come near
Tobago, and in the process improve the
island’s market credibility.
There are those who take the view that
what happens in Tobago has little relevance
for Trinidad, except in the sense that Tobago
is a holiday destination for Trinidadians.
This is extremely short-sighted. As Port of
Spain develops into a conference destination,
Tobago, as a pre- and post-convention
option, becomes a major conference
inducement for meeting planners.
The crime situation that continues to
impact Trinidad so horrendously has not
spared Tobago, and while the incidents
that have occurred are dwarfed by the
carnage in Trinidad’s major urban centres,
it is an unfortunate fact of tourism life that
such things are not supposed to happen
at all in the idyllic resort environments of
the Caribbean. As a consequence, Tobago
has joined a number of other Caribbean
Islands in being badly impacted by travel
advisories coming out of the British Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, the US State
Department and the Canadian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
Conclusion
The future of tourism in Trinidad and
Tobago is a classic case of the glass being
half empty or half full, depending on your
point of view.
The “half empty” adherents point out that
nothing has really changed:
• There is no clearly stated, unequivocal
political commitment to tourism
• The THA throws up more road blocks
to the industry’s development than it
provides in facilitation
• The sector is fragmented and lacks
coordinated direction
• There is no clearly stated strategic plan for
tourism development on either island, and
as a consequence the various government
entities and stakeholders are all going in
different directions at the same time
• The crime situation is horrendous and
getting worse
• The global economic picture is
deteriorating; a full-blown depression
would make international travel all but
impossible
• Air fares are high and escalating while
airlift out of source markets is contracting.
The “half full” adherents, on the other hand,
take the view that we have come a very long
way since the negative years of the sixties
and seventies:
• We now have a tourism-specific ministry,
with its own dedicated state agency for
implementation
• Cabinet is set, for the first time, to
approve a national tourism policy
• With the current volatility in the
price of oil and gas, which are already
recognised as depleting resources, there
is an ever increasing need for economic
diversification, and tourism is a prime
candidate to fill that gap
• The industry-owned and -operated
Trinidad and Tobago Hotel Training
Institute (TTHTI) has the proven
capability to train all staff positions to
meet the needs of a thriving industry
• Tourism offers great employment
opportunities, and careers in tourism are
now seen to be well-paying with good
upward mobility
• Trinidad has the capital resources to fund
industry expansion, on an as-needed
basis, with the addition of new hotels
and attractions
• With Caribbean Airlines, Trinidad has
the capability to develop market access if
it chooses to make use of it
• The global recession will not last long and
tourism will soon come bouncing back.
The “half full” guys are probably nearer
the mark. It all depends, as it always has,
on political will. If the government will
only grasp the political nettle, and provide
a clear, properly funded strategic plan to
complement its new tourism policy, and if
the Tobago House of Assembly will only
come down off the fence and make a clear
commitment to the development of an
internationally sustainable tourism product,
there is absolutely no doubt that Trinidad
and Tobago could become a very significant
player on the world tourism stage.
Fat chance, the “half empty” guys say.
Your call.
John Bell is a former director general and CEO
of the Caribbean Hotel Association and a former
president of the Trinidad and Tobago Hotels and
Tourism Association
(This page) St Andrew’s Golf Course, Moka
58 TTBG 09/10