Trinidad and Tobago
Express
UWI expert: Tourism governance too weak
BY VERDEL BISHOP
verdel.bishop@trinidadexpress.com
THE tourism industry in Trinidad and Tobago tends to be treated as 'tokenism' for diversification, a university expert has said.
Tourism linkages among economies in the region tend to be weak and the overall tourism multiplier for the Caribbean is far below the world average, the expert said.
She added that tourism governance in the Caribbean also tends to be weak, with low levels of technical capacity.
These were the views of Dr Acolla Lewis-Cameron, dean of the Faculty of Social Science at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) St Augustine. Lewis-Cameron spoke last Friday at a virtual discussion on the topic 'Tourism as an Engine of Foreign Exchange Generator'.
She clarified the term 'tourism economic viability', and said there were several issues and practical steps to consider to develop tourism-such as a lack of commitment to develop the sector, lack of coordination, and shifting priorities.
'We are living in existential times where crises are more frequent, lasting longer and the negative impact seems to be more detrimental as the years go by. And when we are thinking about island economies that are, in a large part, dependent on tourism, we have to make the impressing issue of how we can make tourism a viable sector in these uncertain times and ensure the socio-economic survival of the region,' Lewis-Cameron said.
She continued, 'It is important for us to clarify what is tourism viability or tourism economic viability. We are pursuing local prosperity to ensure that there is maximisation of visitor spend in the economy and an increase in the amount of visitor spend that actually remains in the economy. We are also pursuing employment quality, so we are after increasing the number of employment opportunities, as well as the quality of jobs generated by tourism.'
She said national and sub-national tourism institutions are challenged. She further said there was insufficient participation by the private sector as well as by local communities.
There is excessive dependence on fiscal incentives to simulate private investment, she added. 'We are seeing this picture emerging through the region. And then nearer home, what we observe as well is that tourism has no political legitimacy. It is one of those sectors that is talked about and is referred to, but you haven't seen that sort of commitment to fully develop the sector to its true potential. And as a result, tourism tends to be treated as tokenism for diversification; but of course, not given the requisite backing to take it at the level of its Caribbean neighbours.
'And as a result of that, what we have noticed in the local context there tends to be a constant shifting of the priorities for tourism. Of course, today there is a focus on business tourism; and then in another season, you will find the emphasis shifts to eco-tourism; and then you will hear about sport tourism. And so there is a constant shifting of the priorities...' Lewis-Cameron said.
Government has to decide on tourism Lewis-Cameron also spoke about the vision for tourism.
'When you are talking about practical steps to increasing tourism activity, you have to understand your context, and practical steps that we can consider, given this landscape. Particularly for Trinidad, we need to get settled. The Government needs to make a decision once and for all on the role of tourism in sustaining a local economy in these existential times, and should it be considered as a priority sector for meaningful development.
'This decision must be supported by a clear vision that is communicated on every level of society. We cannot be vacillating as to whether or not we should consider tourism. Make a decision once and for all. This vision must be not just stated, but supported by the requisite funding-not a situation where the tourism institutions constantly have to come cap-in-hand for funding, but the vision must be supported by a budget that can deliver on the relevant vision and the appropriate enabling environment must be created to attract relevant investment,' she said.
She noted: 'And then of course, the strengthening of the capacities of the tourism institutions is critical, so that they can successfully lead the sector at all levels. And then finally, in terms of this whole point of getting settled, there must be support for formulating sector policies and programmes that will help to determine shared public and private sector objectives.
'In addition to getting settled, another critical step for T& T in particular is that we need to get smart. Technology and ICTSs must be leveraged, leading to a smart experience for the visitor-and this is one which enhances the tourist experience through personalisation, context awareness and real-time monitoring.'
She said data and linkages are important factors that have to be properly implemented.
'We need to get linked. There has to be an intersectoral approach to tourism product development which can contribute to...competitiveness of the sector. We need to get data. Data is the new oil. The weakness of our tourism intelligence system has led us to excessive dependence on a small number of small source markets, which creates vulnerability for the sector. We are heavily dependent on the diaspora and what is required is developing a robust marketing intelligence to help us to identify trends. There has to be an integration of the use of AI as a supporting tool for businesses to improve customer service delivery for visitors,' Lewis-Cameron said.
Economist Dr Auliana Poon was also part of the discussion.
She said there is a paradigm shift taking place in the tourism industry globally, while also noting that tourism is a critical
engine of growth for Caribbean economies.
'In the past, finance was the be-all and end-all in the entire industry; then came the economy, then society, then the planet. Today the planet is the centre of everything we do, followed by society, the economy, and then finance is taking a back seat,' Poon said.
Tourism is part of the mass production wave that was fuelled by oil, she argued.
'We are in the fifth information wave, and the sixth wave is the age of intelligence. The world is changing, so it is not business as usual. To stay relevant, we have to constantly change. We need to innovate, dream big, use technologies, and rethink, re-imagine, reinvest, and reposition; but very critically, what is causing this paradigm shift? We, the consumers, are driving this change,' Poon said.
She said the balance of power is also shifting as consumers are using their influence to change the demographic.
'The environment is limiting growth, locals are more and more demanding, and the balance of power is shifting. The almighty consumers are the single most important influence on a company's success. Consumers themselves are radically engaging their demographic shifts, geographic shifts, and psychographic shifts,' Poon said.
Deputy principal of The UWI Cave Hill Campus Professor Winston Moore said there is a link between climatic features and tourism.
'There are a number of different accepts to this relationship between climate and tourism. When I use the term climate, I'm not referring to the day-to-day functions in these variables. I'm referring to the long-run trends in these variables. So the 30-, 50-, and 100-year trends are what I'm referring to. Economists and researchers in the areas of tourism developed a tourism climate index because, given this potential link between climatic features and tourism, it therefore extends in the climate feature,' he said.
Moore said the contribution of tourism to the GDP and capital investment shows that the industry is important in the Caribbean.
'Looking at the contribution to GDP as well as the contribution to capital investment, it is essentially larger than any other region across the entire world. So in the Caribbean, the contribution to GDP is around 14 per cent-and that is the direct contribution.
If you are taking into account the indirect contributions, that number is even larger, and it also makes a significant contribution to capital investment in each Caribbean island, as well as when we build out the tourism infrastructure, we see a significant contribution to investment,' Moore said.
Photo: DEAN OF FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: Dr Acolla Lewis-Cameron.
Photo: ECONOMIST: Dr Auliana Poon