Tourism minister: E-passports, online departure/arrival forms will improve sector

TOURISM Minister Randall Mitchell says the introduction of e-passports and online arrival/departure forms to TT will improve the industry.

These comments came one day after Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the 2025 budget in which he announced these initiatives.

At the Red House in Port of Spain on September 30, Imbert said the tourism industry remains “a golden opportunity for TT’s economic diversification.”

Asked about this on October 1, Mitchell told Newsday the initiatives “promise to make travel much easier…

“Thereby, improving our tourism product.

“More than that, especially in the case of the electronic disembarkation cards, it allows us at the ministry to access more accurate data at a much faster rate which would in turn provide for better decision making.”

Imbert had said that in 2025, a legal team will begin working on the framework for the digital disembarkation/embarkation cards. However, he gave no timeline for the introduction of e-passports.