New hotels for Trinidad, marketing boost for Tobago in 2010 budget

The Trinidad and Tobago government today unveiled its budget for the 2010 fiscal year. Finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira read the budget. Below is the part of the budget that deals with tourism.

Mr. Speaker, as we continue our diversification thrust in keeping with our Vision 2020 National Strategic Plan, the Government’s approach to Tourism has been quite novel as we leverage our emerging position as a financial centre with the traditional leisure options to extend our markets. We are fortunate to have three high quality products and experiences to market internationally, namely, Trinidad, Tobago and Trinidad and Tobago.

Mr. Speaker, although this has been a challenging year for the tourism sector globally, Trinidad and Tobago has succeeded in maintaining its position as a preferred tourist destination and has a good story to tell. This performance was bolstered by the increased business tourist arrivals generated by the hosting of the 5th Summit of the Americas Conference in April of this year which put paid to any doubts of our ability to market destination Trinidad and Tobago to a full range of clients.

During the new fiscal year the Government will maintain this momentum in our quest to achieve a sustainable tourism sector by increasing airlift and room stock; enhancing the tourism plant; implementing an aggressive campaign to expand the markets for business, leisure and domestic tourism and by working with stakeholders in the sector to prevent the erosion of this destination’s Caribbean market share, as the strong competitive surge of response to these difficult new economic conditions by other Caribbean destinations become manifest.

Mr. Speaker, airlift and the significant escalation in travel costs are a serious challenge to the tourism industry worldwide. Airlines will choose routes that will maximize their returns and will go to countries with a critical mass in terms of quality accommodation that will support a significant share of their load factor. This means that we have to create the environment which will encourage direct flights and provide inducements for co-marketing arrangements that maintain airlift.

By the end of 2009, we would have emerged in a much stronger position in terms of available business oriented hotel room stock and meeting and conference facilities through the country’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November this year.

An additional 50 rooms have been built by Cara Suites in Claxton Bay, as part of their expansion of the existing hotel. The Star Hotel in Piarco will add 120 rooms, the Carlton Savannah 165 rooms and the Academy for the Performing Arts a further 52 rooms before the end of the year. Mr. Speaker, a large international hotel chain has shown tremendous interest in constructing a hotel at Invaders Bay which is now available to potential investors.

We will introduce the Tobago destination to groups of third party intermediaries in North America who are relatively unfamiliar with the Trinidad and Tobago destination. During the new fiscal year by focusing on Tobago’s traditional niche market strengths, dive and eco-tourism for instance, we will further and more widely introduce the destination’s product to these travel intermediaries with particular outreach to a select number of Caribbean market specialists in these areas. The Tourism Development Company (TDC) will work even more aggressively and actively with foreign outbound travel trade specialists to further induce their interest to sell the destination and create a wider perception of “value for spend” among their clients.

Mr. Speaker, in previous Budgets, the Government outlined its plans to refurbish and restore popular local sites of interest to increase the attractiveness of the destination. To this end, drainage works and new and improved signage at Manzanilla, Macqueripe and Vessigny have been completed. The upgrade of these facilities for access to persons with disabilities is expected to be completed shortly.

The Maracas Redesign and Restoration Project began in April this year and is expected to be completed by September 2012. The completed new Maracas Beach Facility will provide increased beach space for visitors in addition to new facilities such as an events area, bathrooms, main pavilion and administration building. The upgraded beach facility, the associated infrastructure and improved utilities will provide additional employment and a better quality of life for the North Coast communities. It will also provide an optimum beach experience for nationals and visitors and contribute to the improvement of the overall tourism product of Trinidad and Tobago.