Poon: An opportunity for TT tourism

ALTHOUGH the tourism industry has felt covid19’s harshest brunt, one tourism expert believes that this is a great opportunity for TT to get its tourism right. Dr Auliana Poon is the managing director and founder of Leve Global. She is also an economist and management consultant.

Poon established Caribbean Futures Ltd that became Tourism Intelligence International in 1990; Villa Being, Tobago, in 2000; Being Sustainable in 2010; the Tourism Intelligence Academy in 2015; Lévé-the Event in 2016 and Leve-Global in 2018. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s in economics from the University of the West Indies (UWI).

She also holds a doctorate in technology and tourism from the University of Sussex, UK. In a release dated May 14. Poon said covid19, “is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime – it is an opportunity for us in TT to ‘get tourism right’; an opportunity to rethink, reinvent and create a more innovative, inclusive, sustainable, responsible and fair tourism industry.”

She added that tourism is big business and no country needs tourism more than TT, adding no country has greater potential to deliver tourism than TT. To do this, however, TT needs to engage its past, love the country, love the guests and love itself. She offered suggestions about what could be done to develop and grow the tourism industry after the covid19 pandemic.

Poon suggested to develop TT’s tourism sector beyond the covid19 pandemic, TT should adopt a bigger picture of what tourism is; understand that everyone is responsible for the success of tourism and the economy; take concrete actions to clean up (stop littering); treasure the environment and make the spaces beautiful; know the country and believe in TT.

The release said tourism was not just about white sand beaches and big hotels and never was.

“If tourism is developed as a true ‘axial’ sector, activating every other sector of the economy, then it should become clear that the real potential for tourism in TT is Trinidad, not Tobago, although both are an unbeatable duo.

To win, we have to be real. We have to truly love what we do and who we do it for – our ultimate customers. We cannot fake tourism,” the release said.