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Tourism importance increasing in T&T

Posted by CaribShout on November 22, 2009 at 8:51pm

Port of Spain, Trinidad The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) says the tourism industry is becoming more important to Trinidad and Tobago's economy and will develop even further over the next 10 years. The WTTC says travel and tourism generated about 10.6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 - US$2.26 million - and 14.7 per cent of total employment - nearly 88,000 jobs - across the sector. And it says the contribution of the travel and tourism economy to GDP is expected to rise to 12.7 per cent by 2019 and over the same 10-year period, the number of jobs in the sector will reach 124,000, 17.6 per cent of total employment in the twin island republic. These are some of the main findings of the WTTC's latest simulated Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for Trinidad & Tobago, launched at World Travel Market. The WTTC said the main objective of the simulated TSA was to measure the contribution of travel and tourism to the national economy and employment, since conventional figures such as visitor arrivals and spending tend to underestimate the sector's overall importance and result in underinvestment in tourism and inadequate emphasis in policy-making. The report shows that, for Trinidad alone, travel and tourism contributes 10 per cent of GDP and 13 per cent of employment while, for tourism-intensive Tobago, it has a much higher economic significance, generating 37 per cent of estimated GDP and just over half of all employment on the island. "We hope that this report will raise awareness of the enormous potential of travel and tourism in Trinidad and Tobago and that the recently developed research team will receive the necessary support to conduct sound and healthy research in the future," said President and Director of Tourism of the Tourism Development Company (TDC) Ernest Littles. This study, which updates research initially conducted in 2005, was based on the United Nations Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework (TSA: RMF 2008), which quantifies all aspects of travel and tourism demand, from personal consumption to business purchases, capital investment, government spending and exports. It then translates this information into economic concepts of production such as GDP and employment that can be compared against other industries and the economy as a whole to provide credible statistical information that can assist in public sector policy and business decision processes.
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Tags: caribbean, caribshout, tobago, trinidad

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