July 14, 2016: The Ministry of Tourism, led by the Honourable Shamfa Cudjoe Minister of Tourism, has embarked on a series of “door-to-door” hotel visits to ensure an understanding of the properties as well as of the challenges and successes of these establishments. The first in this series of door-to-door visits started on July 12, 2016.
Six (6) accommodation properties, ranging from 12 room boutique facilities that provide personalised service with that special “Trinbago” warmth to large size full service properties with 428 rooms, were visited. Accommodation properties toured were as follows:
- Hyatt Regency Trinidad
- Radisson Hotel Trinidad
- Courtyard by Marriott
- L’Orchidee Boutique Hotel
- Coblentz Inn and Boutique Hotel
- Kapok Hotel
These hotels are all located in close proximity to the commercial area of Port of Spain and their main clientele is the business traveler but the properties are also aggressively pursuing the leisure market visitor and growing their share of the regional meeting, incentives, conventions and exhibition market segment (MICE).
All of the properties welcomed this initiative by the Ministry of Tourism; exclaiming that“this is the first time that a Minister of Tourism has personally visited their facility and this augurs well for a strong private-public partnership in moving our local tourism sector forward”.
At each hotel stop on the itinerary Minister Shamfa Cudjoe explained that “this innovative door-to-door approach of hotel visits is important as this ensures more dedicated quality time with the executives and staff of the hotels to understand challenges and constraints faced. It is time for us to break away from our traditional approaches of holding meetings in large groups in Ministry’s offices. I want to go out and meet the industry leaders and the people working in the industry at their own work space. We want to hear of not only your successes, but also of your challenges”.
Additionally, Minister Cudjoe pointed out that “the Ministry and the TDC alone cannot promote destination Trinidad and Tobago. Hotel properties, tour operators, transportation providers, all have a role to play, and it is in everyone’s interests to work together to bring more visitors to our shores. Nothing creates a more lasting impression on visitors than their experience at their home away from home than the place where they stay. A hotel is far more than just a place to refresh, eat and sleep … it provides a taste of the warm hospitality of Trinidad and Tobago”.
Minister Cudjoe and the tourism delegation were guided through a tour of each property before holding meetings with the hotel executives. During the discussions several issues arose such as:
- Rapid turnover of staff - the difficulties to recruit and maintain a suitable workforce in the tourism industry remains a challenge.
2. The urgency to continue the close collaboration with hoteliers so as to attract new market niches to the country and improve hotel occupancy.
3. The critical need to speed up the processing of applications for investment incentives and better sensitise the accommodation sector regarding the refurbishment grants and training and institutional strengthening services available from the Ministry of Tourism and the TDC.
Hotel site visits continue over the weekend (July 15-17) in the sister isle of Tobago and next week in the South region as Minister Cudjoe presses on with her hotel visits’ drive.
Aside from Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, the high level tourism team was composed of:
Clifford Hamilton - Senior Technical Tourism Advisor at the Tourism Ministry
Latta Tapsy-Jahoor - Senior Business Analyst
Adrian Winter - Personal Advisor to the Minister of Tourism
Kashka St. Hilaire - Personal Assistant to the Minister of Tourism
Hayden Straker - Manager Niche Markets, TDC
Tenisha Brown-Williams - Industry Standards Specialist, Quality Control TDC
Marsha Mobhair - Project Coordinator Investment Facilitation, TDC
Sherma Mitchell - Manager Corporate Communications, Ministry of Tourism
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For further information please contact:
The Corporate Communications Unit
Ministry of Tourism
868-624-1403 ext. 248