The view amongst professionals during The University of the West Indies’ (The UWI) recently held National Conversations Series, hosted by the Trade and Economic Development Unit, titled “FOREX earning potential of T&T Carnival” is that for Trinidad and Tobago to generate foreign exchange from Carnival, it must be structured, and more importantly it must be measured.
Dr Keith Nurse, president of the College of Science Technology and Applied Arts Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATT), “Many countries around the world are now measuring the economic impact of their festivals. Trinidad and Tobago has not been doing so and that is a major glaring error of omission from a policy standpoint and I think we really need to rectify that in a significant way. We have never done a proper economic impact assessment taking into the account all the key flows associated with the Carnival.”
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Nurse was part of a panel discussion hosted by former UWI principal, Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, that also included coach/mental therapist, Dennise Demming, and Professor Emeritus Patrick Watson, Professor of Economics at The UWI. Noting the unique nature of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival in comparison to other Carnivals around the world, Nurse said three key art forms shape T&T’s Carnival: calypso, mas, and pan.
He also said that it is bigger than the art form, as it is also a festival of arts. Drawing from his research, Nurse said: “The issue of data capture is very weak, we don’t consider things like the creative industry to be an important element of our economies and maybe it has to do with the fact we don’t think these things really matter.
“But in Trinidad and Tobago’s context and in terms of festival economics, I would argue that there are four key areas that need to be capturing data to understand the economic impact and the foreign exchange impact. The first is festival tourism and I call it cultural and festival tourism, accommodation, travel and hospitality and those sub-sectors are really important to capture, for example, what is the occupancy rate during Carnival. Well, for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, we know that most of the established hotels, guest houses, villas, and now Airbnb, we have been averaging accommodation rates, occupancy rates in excess of 90%. Similarly, we know that the earnings in terms of visitor arrivals peak during the period, it’s the highest rate of arrivals for Trinidad and Tobago and the data we capture are generally in a three-week period,” he explained.
Demming described Carnival as both a product and an experience, emphasizing that the lack of structure weakens the overall offering. She highlighted the distinction between the product and the experience, explaining that the product includes elements like costumes, Carnival bands, and the pan yards.
“The Carnival product is truly amazing, and it is promoted and supported by our citizens,” Demming remarked. “This product needs to be marketed in such a way that others will want to participate and enjoy it.”
