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CCNTV6
  • 8 months ago
Five million US dollars! That's how much forex was generated in Trinidad and Tobago by Epic Carnival this year. CEO Jonathon Mack is urging local tourism stakeholders to do more for T&T Carnival, as he says, many foreigners have expressed to him that carnivals in other territories provide more value for money. Rynessa Cutting has more.
Transcript
00:00It's a nine-day carnival cruise experience, culminating in two days of
00:05carnival in Trinidad and one day of R&R in Tobago. This year, Epic Carnival
00:11brought 1,200 passengers to our shows and the revenue generated was exponential.
00:18It comes up with a grand figure and this is a lower end estimate of 5 million USD
00:23which is about 35 million dollars TT dollars that we injected into Trinidad
00:29and Tobago. So not only are we bringing culture and exporting Trinidad, we are
00:34actually bringing real revenue into our country and we know there's exchange
00:38rate problems getting US dollars. People spend US dollars in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:43The USD was generated through the purchase of Fed tickets, carnival
00:48costumes and packages, services like hair and makeup and incidentals like food,
00:54craft and ground transportation. The Epic Carnival experience saw the return
01:00of the Royal Caribbean Cruises to our shows at a time when room stock is
01:05traditionally at an all-time low. The ability to board in Trinidad and Tobago
01:10as a floating hotel and not have to come from Puerto Rico was a huge difference
01:14as well and I think it's going to provide value for the consumer flying
01:19to experience Trinidad and Tobago that can't find a hotel room. With Trinidad and
01:24Tobago being the creator of Carnival as the world has come to know it, Mark
01:29believes our product should be the premier product in the world. From a
01:34price level to a consumer, you're already interested in going to
01:38these islands because they've already developed their products as a tourism
01:42destination and they're executing Carnival cheaper than us. So it's time
01:48for Trinidad and Tobago to really realize if we want to continue and we
01:52want to be competitive in this world, we need to reinvest in our culture and I'm
01:56going to say this, literally I saw Jamaica Carnival advertised everywhere
02:00in Miami, I saw Crop Over being advertised, I saw it at the airports, I've
02:05seen it in magazines, I'm seeing social media ads retargeted to me and I'm not
02:09seeing anything from Trinidad and Tobago. Literally Epic has been the only thing
02:15that I've seen thus far that's truly exporting Trinidad Carnival to the world.
02:19Mark is inviting more Carnival stakeholders to partner with him to take
02:24TNT's Carnival product further. Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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