$55m for tourism

ALTHOUGH Minister of Finance Colm Imbert’s budget presentation on Tourism yesterday focussed mainly on Tobago, part of the $55 million allocation was expected to go towards the marketing of Trinidad as well.

Imbert stated that the Tobago Tourism Agency was developing and marketing Tobago as a leisure-based location while the Tourism Trinidad Company was marketing Trinidad as a location for meetings, conferences, and exhibitions.

Janelle Commissiong, Chairman of the Company, told Newsday the board was in the process of recruiting the executive team and its members should be in place within the next month. “We look forward to the budgetary allocations of funds available to do destination marketing and to promote Trinidad’s tourism generally. Tourism Trinidad Limited will identify the tourism products that are most attractive to our overseas visitors and will aggressively promote them with the available resources.”

“Of course, Carnival is the linchpin of our cultural offerings and as (National Carnival Commission) Chairman Gypsy (Winston Peters) said at the opening of Carnival 2019, it needs to be better promoted and better organised.”

She said digital technology and social media would be important tools in its marketing efforts, and that the company looked forward to liaising with all Tourism stakeholders.

She added that with the upcoming improvements to local air and sea transportation, increased arrivals into Trinidad was anticipated.