Budget part 2

The continuing saga of the budget.

The issue the Minister of Finance is fighting with is more of revenue than cutting cost. In other words if the revenue was forthcoming then I don't see him looking to cut expenditure, leaving the status quo with continued subsidies, transfers and support of the non productive sector. This is nothing new as successive administrations have fallen into the trap.

So with energy pricing in the ditch which not only affects oil and gas pricing but ammonia, nitrogen, methanol, and other industries that use natural gas as its feedstock. Will energy pricing ever recover, probably not, so T&T will have to make permanent changes to its economy.

Tourism:

Both islands have huge tourism prospects. Each island has its own attractions, lifestyle, natural beauty and places of interest.
The average stay over  visitor spends approximately $1,500.00US per week.
Each hotel room employs 2 persons directly with an additional 10 persons indirectly.
Local industries benefit directly - agriculture, beverage, services, taxi's, tour operators, construction, entertainment etc.
Tourism is a direct earner of foreign exchange.

We once had a thriving business in Chaguaramas with the yachting industry. This has the potential of earning upwards of $500 million TT annually, employing 2000 persons directly and thousands of other persons indirectly. The infrastructure already exists with the private sector investing in marinas and boatyards with state of the art out hauling facilities.
One of the problems we have is with customs and immigration who somehow do not understand the business of yachting. The horror stories with these two government agencies are numerous and have literally chased potential business to the other islands. Imagine the northern Caribbean has been devastated by the storms, insurance costs are going to skyrocket and it seems that T&T is blissfully unaware of the earning potential.
Tobago must be the only Caribbean island without a full service marina. Why? The taxpayer would not have to invest one single dollar for this to happen, can you imagine the business being generated from this activity.

At present there is a room tax that is charged for every stay. This tax is paid into the consolidated fund and is not utilized for the industry. How about if we take the room tax which equates to approximately $60.0M TT per year and reinvest it into the tourism industry.
We require a marketing and promotion budget of at least $60.0M US per annum. This would have to be committed over an extended period to be successful. The current commitment for marketing and promotion is $19.0M TT, woefully inadequate.
Industry professionals would have to be hired to run the Agency responsible for marketing and promoting tourism. The Ministry of Tourism would be responsible for tourism policy only.
We should have a target of attracting one million stay over visitors every year. This would earn the country upwards of $10.0BN TT, employing tens of thousands of skilled professionals. This would create major opportunities for both local and foreign direct investments.
Sell the government owned hotel properties. We do not need to own (6) hotels between the Central Government and the THA.
The T&T Hospitality Training Institute should be well funded to take advantage of the opportunities in the tourism and hospitality industry. This should remain a privately run institution however with State support.

Tourism is a critical part of the national economy and must be recognized as playing a key role not only in providing precious foreign exchange but huge employment opportunities.
We will continue our discussion during the week.