This article is based on notes for my presentation today to the Fourth Caribbean International Tourism Conference (CITC 2019) at UWI’s Cave Hill campus. My presentation will be on Trinidad & Tobago’s State-owned hotels to outline the results and provisional conclusions of my research. I designed that research program to examine the existing State-owned hotels as a way of understanding
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Incentive or motivational travel is one of those target markets that I believe we can do substantially better at, especially to help fill those arrival and accommodation gaps which help drive down our overall annual occupancy. Income thresholds, particularly in the United Kingdom, for many, prove to be a massive deterrent to boost personal earnings, with a relatively low level
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By now I would have hoped in the interest of transparency, our Government would have published a full disclosure of the ‘windfall’ funds raised by the imposition of the bevy of new tourism taxes applied in October last year. These include the Airline Travel and Tourism Development Fee (second airport departure tax), Hotel Room Levy, Direct Services Product Levy and
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Returning recently to Barbados on a British Airways flight, landing early from a near freezing Gatwick Airport, it was a real treat to clear entry formalities using the automated passport kiosks in seconds. Then being finally processed by a warm welcoming female Immigration officer. With only cabin baggage, passing through the red channel was just as trouble free, with time
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Naturally we depend on airlift to drive the overwhelming number of visitors who grace our shores, so I would like to continue with the subject again this week. Kudos must be given to our policymakers for stepping in so quickly to compensate for the air seats lost with the collapse of the Thomas Cook Group including their airline recently, albeit
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Spirit Airlines, the Miramar (Florida) based leading low cost carrier has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with European based aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, to add 100 aircraft to its fleet by 2027 plus an option to buy an additional 50 planes, at a later date. The airline already operates 500 flights to 67 destinations daily. In a statement issued by
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Of course there are many positive attributes to the all-cash sale of Elegant Hotels to Marriott recently and enormous kudos should be given to the locally based Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sunil Chatrani and his team, for taking the company to this stage, ensuring that his fiduciary responsibilities were executed and realizing, what appears to be a very attractive offer
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