Commentary: Why isn't T&T tourism prospering? - John Lindsay

Trinidad and Tobago is primarily crime ridden as everyone knows, and plus, with specific reference to Trinidad, it really is NOT "beautiful" as many Trinis blindly assert, but a dismal, polluted and garbage ridden industrial back lot and swampland.

Get a grip Trinidad, get a handle on tourist oriented crime in Tobago and then professionally push and promote it.

Providing access is reasonable, i.e. does not involving hours being spent frustratingly in Piarco before getting there, it actually has much of what the stereotypical North American tourists seek.

"Pretty silver sand beaches, blue ocean, verdant greenery, and sun". Of course it also has a lot of locals that prey on and visibly, tangibly resent tourists. The kind of ignorant fools that mistake giving (good) service for being servile.

As for Trinidad, what exactly do you feel the place has to offer to visiting foreigners?

If a magic wand could be found and used to reduce crime levels to something comparable with most of the region, you still need to address the issue of the traffic chaos, the incredible degree of pollution on all fronts, the extent of intense and very scruffy industrialization, the "we is ah oil an gas rich nation" attitudes, the miserable dirty and depressing beaches and brown waters.

Native Trinis can wax lyrical about Maracas Bay, Mayaro, etc, etc. It's to a degree quite natural they would have a special place in their hearts for such places. It's "home".

But you need to look at the place through the eyes of potential tourist visitors, and there is so very, very little in the way of what they consider important. Very little "cute, Caribbean island stuff" and virtually no amenities.

After all, just how often do you expect them to struggle through traffic to Movietowne or West Mall? A step towards reality would be to diversify the island's (Trinidad's) economy aggressively.

It has historically been the industrial services and product supplier to much of the region, so expand on that.

There really are not too many potential competitors for all kinds of manufactured and value added goods, once the country gets off its ass (GOYA), and recognizes there is no known, long term future in oil and gas, so with and without foreign investment and incoming industries and technologies, this island needs to do things differently, if it hopes to have anything of an economically viable future.

And leave hopes of tourism to Tobago.