Leacock: Economic impact of jazz festival to be measured

Chairman of the Tobago Festivals Commisson George Leacock, and Tourism Secretary Nadine Stewart-Phillips at Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex in Calder Hall.
Chairman of the Tobago Festivals Commisson George Leacock, and Tourism Secretary Nadine Stewart-Phillips at Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex in Calder Hall.

The Tobago Festivals Commission and the Tobago House of Assembly have hired Economist Dr Ralph Henry, chairman of Kairi Consultants, to conduct a comprehensive economic impact assessment of the Tobago Jazz Experience (TJE) over the past 10 years.

Chairman of the Tobago Festivals Commission, George Leacock, speaking at Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Administrative Complex in Calder Hall, said the decision to hire Henry was so that the economic impact of the festival on the island could be known.

“Members of the public do have the right to ask questions about the potential benefits of the festival. We as a Festival Commission also need to know in real terms; not merely a statement where hotels were full or wasn’t full or taxi drivers made money or vendors made money but in a real sense, we want to know what the economic impact of having the festival is on Tobago,” he said.

“The budget presented by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago last year and even the matters that came out in the budget debate is that there is a position taken by the state that festivals in Tobago should be developed so that they contribute to the tourism product.

“The days of doing things of that nature merely by feel are long past, we must have scientific information to present and we are very happy to tell you that we will be in a position to provide that information,” he added.

In May 2017, Tourism Secretary Nadine Stewart-Phillips had announced that the Executive Council had approved the formulation of an evaluation and strategic task force team to review and evaluate last year’s festival.

She said this team, which was led by Senior Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies at The University of the West Indies, Dr Keith Nurse, was mandated to review, consult, research and assess the event, and was to also conduct socio-economic research on the viability of the Tobago Jazz experience and compare it to similar events in the region.

Asked on Wednesday whether the Ralph Henry team would be doing a similar project, Leacock said this new project was not limited to merely looking at reports and the information but have created their own data models.

“The team that assessed the Festival last year would have only had available to it the information that was presented in terms of records, I don’t know if there were assessments before.

“The model presented by Dr Henry will gather its own information, would have people doing surveys in the field, would have access to the spending of the festival, our mechanisms of delivery and it will be comprehensive.

“From what I recall from the document presented, it will include actually meeting with taxi drivers, meeting with hotels, trying to assess how many cars were rented and there is reference in the document about data to be gathered from airline, data to be gathered from the seaport and all of that,” he said.

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