THA: Tobago carnival cost less than budgeted $17.5m

SECRETARY of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris said the THA has saved on the $17.5 million it had initially planned to spend on Tobago’s inaugural carnival.

She said when all of the expenses are tabulated, the cost would likely be between $12-$13 million.

At the post executive council media briefing on Thursday, Burris told reporters, “I am pleased to report that the THA would not incur the $17.5 million that we had initially anticipated that we would spend for this carnival. One of the main reasons for that is that there were some elements of the budget that we weren’t able to execute this year. So that is where a lot of cost savings would be realised.”

She said the bulk of the carnival spend was done through the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd and the Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd (TTAL). The commission and TTAL are tallying their final receipts and invoices.

Noting there have been complaints about the $17.5 million that was being spent to host the carnival, Burris said a large chunk of the budget went toward marketing.

“I think one of the things that we have to look even for this October carnival was the fact that we expended some money with respect to the marketing of the carnival. The marketing was a critical component to ensure that the festivities and the event itself would be a success.”

She said money was spent on the media launch, Bago Jam, radio advertisements, billboards and other marketing elements.

Burris added people must also bear in mind that post covid19, the price of goods and services also skyrocketed.

Regarding visitors, Burris said those figures are also being tabulated.

“I know that CAL put out a release yesterday (Wednesday) that they subsequently rescinded in terms of the numbers of persons we were able to move. We actually want to paint a total picture of what those numbers would look like.

“So we are not necessarily looking at the carnival week but we had a long weekend before that and those persons were coming to participate in the carnival events that weekend and most of them stayed on until the end of the festivities.”

She added, “We want to give people an idea as to the numbers we were clocking for the entire period that the carnival was proclaimed, which was from the October 1 to October 31 so people can get an idea of what were the direct benefits in terms of hard dollars and cents to the economy.”

Burris said the reviews from visitors who played mas, so far, have been excellent

“Some of them have indicated that it is the best mas experience that they have ever had. And in our first year, I think that is a huge complement to have when you talk about persons who came to Tobago who would normally play mas in Trinidad, Miami, Nottinghill, Caribana or Labour Day, these larger carnivals across the world, to come to Tobago and talk about the fact that they were embraced from Day One by the mas bands. So that means that the customer service was on point this weekend.

“We really infused our Tobago-ness in all aspect of the products.”