126,392 visitors sail to TT

Some 126,392 cruise-ship passengers visited TT last year Ministry of Tourism officials today told a parliamentary committee chaired by Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George.

The 168 per cent hike from the 2016/17 figure of 48,878 was attributed to hurricanes hitting other isles.

Those two years had also seen a slight drop of three per cent in tourists arriving to TT by air from 408,782 to 394,650.

The goal for 2020 is 500,000 air arrivals annually and 100,000 cruise arrivals, the committee learnt.

Acting deputy permanent secretary Satie Jamraj-Marimuthu on Thursday said a board has been appointed for Tourism Trinidad Ltd, the new entity replacing the former Tourism Development Company, although the new body is not yet operational but will hopefully be launched by the end of the fiscal year.

On Maracas Beach upgrades, the committee learnt there was no time line for completion of the remaining vendors booths, so the new facility is being opened in stages starting with the new car park.

A sewer treatment plant is due by the end of August.

Jamraj-Marimuthu said the ministry has had no allocation nor involvement in the Sandals Hotel proposed for Tobago.

She said the ministry’s app for tourists has had 10,833 users and been used in 125 different countries.

Legal officer Candice Hicks said that after a jet ski accident in Tobago, a report into the matter had said the vehicles are an area of potential danger for tourists and is an area of concern.

She said the devices fall under the remit of the Coast Guard and Maritime Services Division but added that the report said it is mostly an unregulated area.

Annisette-George urged that uniform standards be imposed to lift the standard of tourist facilities such as guest houses.

Committee member Dr Lackram Boddoe had hoped the setting of high standards would have moved from voluntary to mandatory.