Category: Tourism

My February 07, 2020 letter to P.M. Rowley

~ dennisedemming ~ Leave a comment

This is one of the letters which I have written to
Prime Minister Rowley over the past 5 years.

Dear Dr. Rowley

Congratulations on your 53rd month as Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

It is almost 10 years since Despers was chased from the “Hill” by their children and the band continues to move from property to property in search of a home.

May I suggest that the property on which they now practice be converted into a National Pan Theatre and a home for Despers.  For many years the Government Printery was housed there which makes its allocation a simple exercise. Such a move by your government will not go un-noticed by the people of the “Hill” and the “Pan Fraternity”.

Yours in the interest of development.

Dennise Demming (Mrs.)
MBA, BSc., Cert-Mass Communications
Concerned Citizen

~ dennisedemming ~ 1 Comment

Our new “Oil” is “Tourism” and this Keith Rowley-led Government better understand that, if they want to provide any kind of hope to this country. There aScreen Shot 2017-09-24 at 19.30.14re 3 areas for urgent action: destination marketing, increasing international arrivals and having a well-trained and certified labour supply.

The 2017 budgetary allocation by the Government towards the marketing and promotion of Trinidad & Tobago’s Tourism products was TT$19M (nineteen million TT dollars).  When compared to allocations in 2015 of TT$50M (fifty million TT dollars), this represents a significant fall by 62%. Two months ago, in July, the Ministry of Tourism confirmed that only TT$8M of the $19M was actually spent.  Spending TT$8M to market a diverse destination such as T&T is a waste of money.  You’ve got to either do it properly or not at all.  In addition to this lack of spend, the contracts for all of our overseas marketing representatives (except for the UK) were cancelled in October 2016 by the Ministry of Tourism with no replacement providers appointed. Thus, Destination Trinidad & Tobago has NOT been promoted in most of our main tourist source markets for the past year.

Consistent with this lack of spend is the fall in international arrivals.  The data says that over the first eight months of 2015 (i.e. by August), we welcomed 300,000 overseas visitors. For a similar period in 2017, overseas visitors has fallen to 275,000, representing an 8% reduction. This has had a direct negative impact on both hotel occupancy as well as room taxation remitted to the Government.

If you combine the reduced budgetary allocation, the lack of destination marketing spend as well as the Government’s continued and prejudicial withholding of GATE reimbursements and recurrent subvention payments to the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI), what emerges is a Tourism Sector which is on the brink of collapse.

To avoid this collapse, the 2018 budget cater for the following:

  • Ramp up the destination marketing allocation to the Tourism sector to at least the TT$60M which is remitted annually by hoteliers to the Government as proceeds from the room tax collected every time someone sleeps in a hotel.
  • Sufficient allocations must also be provided to the Ministry of Education honour its GATE reimbursement commitments to a number of tertiary level institutions in Trinidad & Tobago.

The budget presentation is really an exercise in accountability. What is needed at stages 2 & 3 are wide collaboration on the plan for the sector and transparency with regard to how the plans will be executed.

Let’s do This …  Minister of Finance!

From Territory Tax Leader to Minister of Finance

~ dennisedemming ~ Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2017-07-02 at 16.42.17The appointment of Miss Allyson West as Minister in the Ministry of Finance may have raised an eyebrow or two.  The raised eyebrows are understandable especially since several of us were appalled when former Judge Volney jumped into the political ring straight from the Bench.  We asked where was the cooling off period or the distance that is required for sober reflection?
Yesterday Miss West was the Territory Tax Leader of one of the biggest and most successful Accounting organizations in this country.  She would have been advising on tax issues where large businesses are seeking redress or resolution of Tax issues with the government.  Today she is on the other side!  She is directly responsible for assisting the Government with the collection of Taxes.
In PWc’s Pre-Budget Bulletin 2017, and referring to the Sandals deal, Miss West’s document stated:
“While we appreciate that agreements of this nature require some level of confidentiality, we would encourage GORTT (ME) to be as transparent as possible on the fundamentals of the arrangement, with particular emphasis on the costs GORTT has to bear and the incentives granted vis a vis the expected returns to be enjoyed by T&T”. 

By putting her hat in the ring, Miss West is now impaled on the horns of a dilemma where on the one hand, her latent memory will trigger issues she had been working on or providing advice for and on the other hand she could be asked to provide advice and or guidance to Officials on the way forward with the very same matters.
Further, PWc has a consultancy arm and the new Minister is now in close proximity to decisions about arrangements which could benefit her employer as of yesterday.  In whose interest will Miss West ultimately act? Of course she is a professional and will serve the best interest of Trinidad and Tobago.
I would like to believe that but must express my feeling of unease.  The jury will be out for a while!  Until then, congratulations to Miss Allyson West, yesterday’s Territory Tax Leader for PWc and today’s Minister of Finance with responsibility for Revenue Collection.