Tourism

In Trinidad and Tobago, tourism is one of the larger growing service sectors. Tourism has been identified by the government as a sector that will play a critical role in the nation’s drive toward economic diversification – a goal intrinsically tied to the national vision of “developed nation status by the year 2020.” The question that begs to be asked however is what is it about the tourism sector that can counteract the nation’s heavy economic reliance on the energy sector, or simply put, why tourism' Essentially, the answer rests in one word – sustainability. Tourism is sustainable. Sustainable tourism has become the professional and personal credo for most, if not all, modern tourism professionals, policy-makers and practitioners but to understand sustainable tourism, a basic understanding of tourism is fundamental. As defined by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), “tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to an exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.” Sustainable tourism, in its purest sense, is an industry which attempts to make a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems. It is responsible tourism which is both ecologically and culturally sensitive. From a development perspective, Trinidad and Tobago’s industry has the potential to offer significant revenue and employment generating, long-term opportunities to the economy. A study was recently conducted by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), in collaboration with Oxford Economic Forecasting (OEF) on the economic impact of Trinidad and Tobago’s tourism industry. The conclusive report stated that “over the past ten years, Travel and Tourism employment in Trinidad and Tobago has steadily increased – by nearly 30,000 jobs.” Assuming that growth in the economy and visitor exports remains positive over the next few years, there is strong potential over the next decade to create 3,500 new jobs every year. The total jobs in Travel and Tourism is expected to increase by just over 3.2 per cent per annum between 2006 and 2015”. These growth projections are not hard to fathom given the fact that the tourism industry can be linked to several other industries such as agriculture, information technology, manufacturing and construction, thereby creating both direct and indirect employment opportunities.