Drop in visitors to Trinidad

Port of Spain Mayor Joel Martinez and Tourism Trinidad Ltd Chairman, Janelle Penny Commissiong, at a meeting held by Port of Spain Rotary Club, Goodwill Industries, Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook. Behind is Tourism Trinidad Ltd Director, Joanna Gittens and Tourism Trinidad Ltd CEO Designate, Camille Campbell. PHOTO:ANGELO M. MARCELLE

​CHAIRMAN of the Trinidad Tourism Ltd and former Miss Universe 1977 Janelle “Penny” Commissiong said the number of visitors to Trinidad fell 3.6 per cent in 2017 from the previous year.
Making a comparison with the Bahamas, which has a population of about 400,000, Commissiong said 6.3 million people visited those islands in 2017, compared to 375,000 visiting TT, whose population is about 1.4 million.
She said the Bahamas was a well-developed traditional destination in close proximity to its primary market, while TT was a somewhat underdeveloped, non-traditional destination relatively remote from its most important market.
Commissiong, the feature speaker at a Rotary Club of PoS lunch yesterday at Fitzblackman Drive, Woodbrook, said she did not think crime caused the drop in arrivals to the country.
“We are not sure yet why the numbers have dropped 3.6 per cent, so one will have to do studies on that, do surveys to see what that 3.6 per cent is, and what time of the year that happens. But I really wouldn’t say it’s the crime, because we are here, we are in it.”
She said while visitors to the Bahamas could buy a package holiday to any one of its islands, interacting only peripherally with Bahamian staff and service providers, most visitors to Trinidad had personal business or other connection to a Trinidadian.
Commissiong said there was a clear difference and distinction between the core tourism product in the Bahamas and the basis of the initial tourism marketing and development thrust in Trinidad.
She said Trinidadians must make a conscious effort to acquaint visitors with its tourism products of reliable quality and good value for money and all consciously and actively become ambassadors, guides, promoters and providers of tourism services in Trinidad. Commissiong said many Trinidadians did not compute that it was Trinidad that most visitors came to.
“Now that the separation is there in terms of marketing, I think the focus is a lot clearer. I don’t see it as a daunting job because we have the product, a product which Trinidadians take for granted and don’t realise as a tourism product. It is about getting Trinidadians to understand we are in the game and have always been in the game.
Source: Newsday, Dec. 2018