New agency to monitor tourism industry

The Ministry of Tourism is working to establish the TT Tourism Regulatory and Licensing Authority (TTTRLA), to develop regulations to govern the tourism sector and have the responsibility for quality standards in all segments of tourism and hospitality industry.

That ministry’s Permanent Secretary Vidiah Ramkhelawan said that once the agency is operational, it will have legal authority to create and enforce tourism-sector regulations and address matters of inspection, licensing, monitoring, classification and grading. Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the TT Hospitality and Tourism Institute where 174 graduates received certificates and awards, Ramkhelawan said the TTTRLA will create market opportunities for community-based sport and eco-tourism.

She said according to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s recent report, travel and tourism are a dynamic engine of economic development and job creation. “In 2017, travel and tourism directly contributed US$2.6 trillion and nearly 119 million jobs worldwide. Taking its wider indirect and induced impacts into account, the sector contributed US $8.3 trillion to the global economy and supported 313 million jobs in 2017. This was equal to 10.4 per cent of the world’s GDP, and approximately one in ten of all jobs,” she said.Ramkhelawan told graduates that a career in the hospitality and tourism industry is a good one. “As you are entering a rapidly evolving industry, tourism not only holds great potential for our national economic development, but is also making a continually growing impact internationally.

“But more significantly we need you – your knowledge, your ideas, your skills, your energy and your innovativeness – to make TT more competitive in the international tourism arena.”

Keynote speaker Cuauthtemoc Novello, vice president of the Americas American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute, told the graduates once customers are treated with passion and love, they will gain the loyalty of customers.

“You will achieve loyalty from your customers and they will always come back to your business. They need to feel satisfied from their first experience. They will tell others and they will come back to your establishment.” Full-time graduate Carla Babb and part-time graduate Jodi Eversley were valedictorians.