Tourism stakeholders say they’ve been forgotten‘Ministry merger worked against us’

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Tourism stakeholders are questioning if joining their ministry with culture and the arts in 2020 was the best decision, as they now feel neglected.

Speaking with Guardian Media about their expectations for today’s budget, Tour Guides Association president Wendell Griffith said he would love to see Government put more emphasis on tourism, as he believes the industry is always on the “back burner.”

“The problem with that is now we have a Ministry of Culture, Tourism and the Arts and all that kind of stuff and we have a minister who is actually dealing with culture and the arts more than he’s dealing with tourism. I mean, when I see him on the news, on the television and on the paper, it’s all about the culture and the arts,” Griffith said.

The ministry’s budget allocation last year was $360,096,000, which was 0.53 per cent of the total budget.

In a similar interview about his expectations last year, Griffith had said they needed to step up on wilderness first aid training due to climate change. Yesterday, he said they were still waiting on this.

“We haven’t had the wilderness training, we’ve had the normal First Aid training, so I’m still hoping that that happens coming through the Tourism Trinidad Limited, which is the implementing arm of the Ministry of Tourism,” he said.

Last year, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the tourism and cultural sectors were critically important for re-energising and re-invigorating the domestic economy. He described those sectors as the key drivers of T&T’s diversification and transformation agenda and for advancing non-energy sector growth.

But Griffith said he has not seen the enthusiasm for this drive from the ministry/government.

“The finances is there but the will to do it is not there…We talk about diversification and yet we don’t see diversification in the area of tourism…the Minister of Finance, he’s the man who comes up with the budget, I’d like to see more emphasis on tourism,” he said.

Griffith also called out the National Trust, who he said had abandoned their core responsibility and were now “tour guides.”

According to its website, the National Trust is dedicated to protecting and promoting the care and preservation of significant built and natural heritage, promoting access for all Trinidadians and Tobagonians to their heritage, fostering a greater awareness and understanding of T&T’s heritage and its significance and richness, and encouraging the continued development of and participation in the trust.

“They not really doing what they are supposed to do,” he said.

Griffith believes the National Trust should be rallying to save this country’s heritage.

Pointing to the demolition of Seigert House earlier this year, he said, “They are doing tours, they are concentrating on doing tours like if they are tour operators all over the country…they are into tour operations instead of concentrating on what they were put together to do,” he said.

Small Tourism Accommodation Owners of Trinidad and Tobago (STAOTT) president Denise Aleong agreed with Griffith’s view that joining the ministries may have impacted the progress of tourism, adding her main wish would be for proper branding of T&T.

“Yes it kind of put tourism a little bit on the back burner,” she shared.

However, Aleong gave credit where it was due, saying she has recognised the push by Tourism Trinidad Limited to engage stakeholders and communities.

She questioned what happened to Destination Trinidad, noting a lot of money and effort was put into coming up with a brand for Trinidad which feeds into the marketing of the destination.

“Yes Tourism Trinidad is doing their best to market Trinidad and they doing all these things with all the influencers and they sponsoring events like the CPL and so on. That’s taking place now but the point is where is the common factor?” she said.

With none of her budget wishes answered in the last year, Aleong also renewed her call for the regulation of Airbnb vacation homes and condos.

“They don’t pay any taxes, they don’t adhere to any laws…everybody could open a bedroom in their house and rent it out to a foreigner … the impact is that it has interfered, it has decreased the occupancy levels of our facilities tremendously,” she said.

She also wants marketing incentives for small tourism accommodation owners and a tax break, as she explained many of them are still recovering from COVID-19.

Tassa Association president Dr Vijay Ramlal Rai believes merging of the three ministries can work but said it’s not streamlined properly and may be “top heavy.”

“Culture is the country’s belly. Culture is such a deep area of our actual day-to-day lives, it’s not just about music and playing pan and tassa,” he explained.

He said he was not sure the merging was working properly.

Earlier this year, the association asked for a million-dollar subvention so they could develop their school’s programme and for their Tassarama competition.

“At least consider that tassa instrument being 100 per cent locally made is deserving of some sort of financial support,” he said.

Rai said due to a lack of funding to pay 2023 prizes, they had to postpone this year’s Tassarama competition which would have fallen on Independence Day.

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