Economist: The country is almost broke

[pugboy]

tribe and dem does repatriate the usd to tt money like good corporate citizens i am confident of this lol

who collects the US that foreigners spend for carnival? if the bulk of that cash goes to the bands, nobody else seeing that US, they getting paid in tt, unless machel say he taking benjamins.

and if it keeping in small circles, it not really benefiting any body.

[Dohplaydat]

Dohplaythat

I understand the tech industry I just don't see it as an immediate solution to our problems. I am thinking about immediate solutions that can be implemented and see results within a year or two. Remember we are in crisis now. Had we put things in place about 2 decades ago we cud have been reaping the benefits of it all now. India wins based on the amount of people they can employ at any given time. Also add to the fact that many tech companies now have Indian executives or Ceos and are further pushing for India to be the number one outsourcing destination for Western Nations.


I don't mind carnival but I just don't see how you extract economic rent from it. There is nothing tangible about the product of carnival. Especially if it is done overseas. I rathee invest in a travelling circus that every night has an admittance fee and a set number of tickets. How do I accurately quantify what is earned when a carnival is held in another land? At the end of the day Jamaica, Vincy, Grenada carnival etc is their* carnival. It becomes even murkier when trinis leave from here and attend those carnivals resulting in further forex leakages. The problem with trinis is they don't understand that carnival is a festival for them to own and profit from. Carnival is work. They always need to have fun.

What you are asking for is investment by government into something that you can't list on the stock exchange anywhere in the world. Unless you are advocating for a cultural sort of company where image rights, artists rights, creator rights etc would be collated under some sort of ownership structure that the state can profit from? Sounds like you think promoters would go there make money and come back here and spend? If that is the case then they don't need much government assistance tbh. It is also not really diversification in my eyes as anyone is free to do that.

I agree, but better start now than never. Tech is the future and we need to get a foothold.

Have you looked up Patrick Hosein? He has several MIT degrees, worked closely with Amar Bose at Bose, Bell Labs etc, has hundreds of patents and publications. We need to utilize the knowledge of people like him.

Yea with Carnival, I think you're overthinking it. I'm saying it's been one of the few industries with innovation, active entrepreneurship, and tonnes of employment opportunities exist. It is an industry that can and does earn us forex. It just needs a little push and support, but let it evolve naturally as it should.

Forget trinis leaving to go to their carnivals, that is only the rich. What impressed me about Crop Over was how much trini involvement was present. Soca Artists, DJs, promoters, and they all smiling. One girl from the Uber Cruise committee said she alone made $40,000 USD revenue.

[eliteauto]

ent when imburt take up position he gave some subsidies to the yacht industry?

but the spend of the foreigners for carnival, that 2k per person, what is the bulk of that spend? is that on the costume? hotel?

The question is if that money being spent is being spent by someone who is attracted to TT because of genuine interests in TT and not someone who is related to the country somehow via friend or family. If they are the former then our tourism advertising efforts are working and if they are the latter then we wasting money and spinning top in mud.

I want ppl coming to TT carnival because they stumble upon an ad abt TT whilst in a train in eastern europe and not because they parents trini or caribbean. We already have these ppl on lock.

Most visitors here are from the diaspora, most non-diaspora visitors are here because of a Trini proxy ( workmates, college buddy, roommate, friend etc). Unfortunately, our advertising and those who steer it are either those with antiquated ideas or square pegs in round holes. I had a meeting with some Gov't officials about marketing Brand T&T and all my ideas seemed so mind-blowing to these guys when in fact they were basic to anyone paying attention to trends, in the end, these guys were willing to back a $3M plan vs a $600K one which means either you value it based on its price ( big being better) or because it leaves room for more to thief. I have a letter going to the Minister of Tourism later this week, hopefully, we can have a meeting soon that will allow my team to present some new ideas as we plan for the post-covid period. I'm hoping the ketch-ass time makes them receptive to better ideas

[Dohplaydat]

tribe and dem does repatriate the usd to tt money like good corporate citizens i am confident of this lol

who collects the US that foreigners spend for carnival? if the bulk of that cash goes to the bands, nobody else seeing that US, they getting paid in tt, unless machel say he taking benjamins.

and if it keeping in small circles, it not really benefiting any body.

Tribe has business accounts, ultimatemas ltd., all credit card USD goes there....to a local bank.

[sMASH]

dont get me wrong, locals will get work from them, the get pay, but pay in tt.

that US gettting collected for US just their own personal use... not here but back to the main land.

[eliteauto]

who collects the US that foreigners spend for carnival? if the bulk of that cash goes to the bands, nobody else seeing that US, they getting paid in tt, unless machel say he taking benjamins.

and if it keeping in small circles, it not really benefiting any body.

Nah it reaches the hands of many, food vendors, tour operators, taxi drivers, souvenir shops . craftsmen etc. Even ticket scalpers

[Dohplaydat]

who collects the US that foreigners spend for carnival? if the bulk of that cash goes to the bands, nobody else seeing that US, they getting paid in tt, unless machel say he taking benjamins.

and if it keeping in small circles, it not really benefiting any body.

Nah it reaches the hands of many, food vendors, tour operators, taxi drivers, souvenir shops . craftsmen etc. Even ticket scalpers

Well in terms of ticket sales, almost all fetes have credit card gateways for buying tickets, so forex is earned there.

But allyuh forgetting that their money is in USD, they have to exchange it to spend locally so forex enters our system that way.

Also, I used $2000 USD as an average spend per carnival visitor. But the amount of people paying 25-40k TT for hotel rooms, not to mention custom costume, makeup, fetes, taxi etc.

Lots of people easily spending 5k USD in Trinidad that week.

[Redress10]

I still don't see how ya gonna export carnival to places such as europe, africa, asia, south america, oceana, etc to keep this money train going all year round.

What exactly are you aiming to export? Expertise?

[zoom rader]

Because Tobagonians get their money from Central Bank who gets the money from oil and gas. Tobagonians eh wanna wuk on no marina. They wanna wuk at the THA. Sign in 10 and leave at 12

Ent is 3.5% of the national budget each year?

Sat did explain that Tobago is ah bunch of free loaders and lazy.

[sMASH]

tell me one band that gonna say, 'nah, we eh wah payment in US. go change it, and check we back'.

all that US goin into costume, lodging, a lil food and trinkets here and there. who ever collecting that US sending dat abroad one time. all it doing is easing up THEIR demand on the local forex reserves.
but to say that playing a big part in tt economy, not as much as u would have us believe.



is like a foreigner hearing trinidad have the largest pitch lake in the world, that is very productive. one would presume that we woudl ahve the best roads because of that. its a logical projection of expectation.
but reality is different.

[pugboy]

i seriously wonder if anybody has a proper handle on the dollar value of this so-called carnival industry goldmine

[zoom rader]

6 months of the year is hurricane season. As we tend to sit outside the hurricane belt all sort of pleasure craft and marine vessels could be stored here for a fee. Even tourist cud come here knowing that chances of getting stuck in a hurricane are slim.

Do we take advantage of this? Nope.

Do we even care? Nobody wants to do the work but everybody want to eat and drive the best. Where will the money come from?

Who do you think own many of the pleasure craft in Chaguaramas during the hurricane season? Many sail from Florida to Trinidad and fly back home, it's been the basis of the marina and boat repair facilities in Chag for decades. What has happened is other islands have built better facilities in the last 10 years which have become more attractive ( quite a few are owned /built/managed by Trinis). We had a period when our tax policy made it less feasible, I think that was fixed ( subject to correction). Our issue has and continues to be that diversification is a catchphrase we use while praying to the oil gods, we squandered opportunities in the past and we have no vision for the future. Our private sector should be leading in innovation but having gotten fat off state contracts for decades now all they can offer is woes and crying. In T&T Tenderpreneurship is a legitimate business model

When meet Rowlee explain dis him nah

[mero]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

[zoom rader]

Our most immediate forex generator apart from energy exports is cruise ship stops. The average cruise ship holds between 3000 and 6000 people. Places like Bim have 6 and 8 cruise ships docking daily.

If one cruise ship of 3000 people dock daily and each person on that ship spends $100usd whilst here that is 300 thousand usd. For a thirty day period that amounts to 9 million usd. For the year that is 108 million usd which amounts to about 750 million ttd. Now Remember that's money being slent in your country. It could be from tours or even buying lunch in a restaurant.

Now obviously you're not going to get a cruise ship everyday and not everyone is going to spend money in your country but it just gives you an idea of the potential if the right things are put in place.

I honestly think trinis are too proud to benefit from tourism and our leaders certainly feel that it is beneath them.

Ambitious figures but very wrong, the largest ships to dock here avg over 3000 persons, of that amt roughly 75% disembark, of that 40% do pedestrian sightseeing and photo ops spending nothing or close to nothing. The remainder is divided into those who pre-book tours which is about half and the rest negotiate with transport providers for trips, their spend averages $30-50 USD inclusive of trinket and food purchases. A cruise ship caters to all their passengers' needs and isn't cheap leaving many with little disposable income for shore leave, add to that we being the southernmost island are usually last port of call when many have exhausted their cash. The next cruise ship season ( if it happens) has us seeing an increase in stops owing to Royal Caribbean basing themselves in B'dos, their new offerings add both Trinidad and Tobago as ports of call. Btw IIRC there is a plan for a marina in Tobago.

Compare this to carnival where u have 40,000 people spending at least $2000USD here. That's $80M USD injected into the economy.

People here will bash Carnival till the cows come home but the fact is Carnival is a major non-energy forex earner for T&T particularly for SMEs and sole traders.

More harm comes from carnival than good.

Carnival creates little monster to the build up to it.

We had a somewhat peaceful year so far. No racist kaisoians and hyping up those red government pest. Also chutney soca is also a bag of crap as it is precursor for drunk injuns


Should be banned until our social behaviour gets tamed.

[Redress10]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Hyatt profits need to be repatriated back overseas. No?
Anyhow, those ppl booking Hyatt are the genuine tourists or diaspora trinis? If is diaspora trinis we still eh making tourist dollars. We literally just trading with ourselves.

[widdyphuck]

This country to broke to fix.
This will affect the quality of life for our children and grand children. Wont be nice and half the politicians who fork up the place will be dead...Just like Manning and Malcolm Jones..

[zoom rader]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Who tell dem it have carnival in 2022?

[Dohplaydat]

i seriously wonder if anybody has a proper handle on the dollar value of this so-called carnival industry goldmine

No, UWI and the Minsitry of Finance have never conducted a proper study so all we can do is speculate.

I am personally involved in the carnival industry, and I can tell you the players big from small make a LOT during carnival and over the last few years many have been earning a lot from the rest of the region.

The earnings come from expertise, organization, costume design, and most importantly music. Soca is growing and getting more popular than dancehall (which has been rel sheit of late tbh), music revenues is no small money as well.

A chutney artist friend (won't name him but he isn't a household name at all), showed me his iTunes, Spotify earnings, and from all his songs in 2019 he made 25K USD.

How much you feel Machel and Kes earning? Probably 25X that.....combine all local soca artists, that is a lot of forex being earnt.

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Not just Hyatt, in OWP, landlords charge 25-40k for carnival week and every single available apartment gets sold out on Airbnb.

tell me one band that gonna say, 'nah, we eh wah payment in US. go change it, and check we back'.

all that US goin into costume, lodging, a lil food and trinkets here and there. who ever collecting that US sending dat abroad one time. all it doing is easing up THEIR demand on the local forex reserves.
but to say that playing a big part in tt economy, not as much as u would have us believe.



is like a foreigner hearing trinidad have the largest pitch lake in the world, that is very productive. one would presume that we woudl ahve the best roads because of that. its a logical projection of expectation.
but reality is different.

Smash, that would make carnival a forex earner still and not a drain. Remember they are profiting.

[Dohplaydat]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Hyatt profits need to be repatriated back overseas. No?
Anyhow, those ppl booking Hyatt are the genuine tourists or diaspora trinis? If is diaspora trinis we still eh making tourist dollars. We literally just trading with ourselves.

They are diaspora trinis who live in the US. They have over 300k trinis living and earning USD in the US. You think they spending TT money when they come? Where they getting TT from they mammy?

We are not trading amongst ourselves, those trinis have migrated and return only for carnival. We are profiting of those who left

[Dohplaydat]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Who tell dem it have carnival in 2022?

LOL with this vaccine rollout I can't see Carnival 2K22 happening, but would love to be proven wrong.

[zoom rader]

i seriously wonder if anybody has a proper handle on the dollar value of this so-called carnival industry goldmine

No, UWI and the Minsitry of Finance have never conducted a proper study so all we can do is speculate.

I am personally involved in the carnival industry, and I can tell you the players big from small make a LOT during carnival and over the last few years many have been earning a lot from the rest of the region.

The earnings come from expertise, organization, costume design, and most importantly music. Soca is growing and getting more popular than dancehall (which has been rel sheit of late tbh), music revenues is no small money as well.

A chutney artist friend (won't name him but he isn't a household name at all), showed me his iTunes, Spotify earnings, and from all his songs in 2019 he made 25K USD.

How much you feel Machel and Kes earning? Probably 25X that.....combine all local soca artists, that is a lot of forex being earnt.

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Not just Hyatt, in OWP, landlords charge 25-40k for carnival week and every single available apartment gets sold out on Airbnb.

tell me one band that gonna say, 'nah, we eh wah payment in US. go change it, and check we back'.

all that US goin into costume, lodging, a lil food and trinkets here and there. who ever collecting that US sending dat abroad one time. all it doing is easing up THEIR demand on the local forex reserves.
but to say that playing a big part in tt economy, not as much as u would have us believe.



is like a foreigner hearing trinidad have the largest pitch lake in the world, that is very productive. one would presume that we woudl ahve the best roads because of that. its a logical projection of expectation.
but reality is different.

Smash, that would make carnival a forex earner still and not a drain. Remember they are profiting.

No it make Trinidad a nation of waiters, chamber maids and store clerks.

These jobs are bare survival jobs

[pugboy]

So how can this carnival intake be converted to pay cepep etc?

[zoom rader]

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Hyatt profits need to be repatriated back overseas. No?
Anyhow, those ppl booking Hyatt are the genuine tourists or diaspora trinis? If is diaspora trinis we still eh making tourist dollars. We literally just trading with ourselves.

They are diaspora trinis who live in the US. They have over 300k trinis living and earning USD in the US. You think they spending TT money when they come? Where they getting TT from they mammy?

We are not trading amongst ourselves, those trinis have migrated and return only for carnival. We are profiting of those who left

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

[Dohplaydat]

i seriously wonder if anybody has a proper handle on the dollar value of this so-called carnival industry goldmine

No, UWI and the Minsitry of Finance have never conducted a proper study so all we can do is speculate.

I am personally involved in the carnival industry, and I can tell you the players big from small make a LOT during carnival and over the last few years many have been earning a lot from the rest of the region.

The earnings come from expertise, organization, costume design, and most importantly music. Soca is growing and getting more popular than dancehall (which has been rel sheit of late tbh), music revenues is no small money as well.

A chutney artist friend (won't name him but he isn't a household name at all), showed me his iTunes, Spotify earnings, and from all his songs in 2019 he made 25K USD.

How much you feel Machel and Kes earning? Probably 25X that.....combine all local soca artists, that is a lot of forex being earnt.

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Not just Hyatt, in OWP, landlords charge 25-40k for carnival week and every single available apartment gets sold out on Airbnb.

tell me one band that gonna say, 'nah, we eh wah payment in US. go change it, and check we back'.

all that US goin into costume, lodging, a lil food and trinkets here and there. who ever collecting that US sending dat abroad one time. all it doing is easing up THEIR demand on the local forex reserves.
but to say that playing a big part in tt economy, not as much as u would have us believe.



is like a foreigner hearing trinidad have the largest pitch lake in the world, that is very productive. one would presume that we woudl ahve the best roads because of that. its a logical projection of expectation.
but reality is different.

Smash, that would make carnival a forex earner still and not a drain. Remember they are profiting.

No it make Trinidad a nation of waiters, chamber maids and store clerks.

These jobs are bare survival jobs

ZR,

Keep quite with yuh carnival negativity, it better be waiter earning a genuine living rather than wukking CEPEP.

[sMASH]

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

this actually good, this will actually help small people get around imburt and his 'managing the distribution'. it is of no use for a few big players hording it for their own use when they want to play in amercia

[Dohplaydat]

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

this actually good, this will actually help small people get around imburt and his 'managing the distribution'. it is of no use for a few big players hording it for their own use when they want to play in amercia

and now these same people not going to the bank to buy USD, still a win ZR

[zoom rader]

i seriously wonder if anybody has a proper handle on the dollar value of this so-called carnival industry goldmine

No, UWI and the Minsitry of Finance have never conducted a proper study so all we can do is speculate.

I am personally involved in the carnival industry, and I can tell you the players big from small make a LOT during carnival and over the last few years many have been earning a lot from the rest of the region.

The earnings come from expertise, organization, costume design, and most importantly music. Soca is growing and getting more popular than dancehall (which has been rel sheit of late tbh), music revenues is no small money as well.

A chutney artist friend (won't name him but he isn't a household name at all), showed me his iTunes, Spotify earnings, and from all his songs in 2019 he made 25K USD.

How much you feel Machel and Kes earning? Probably 25X that.....combine all local soca artists, that is a lot of forex being earnt.

When Hyatt opened bookings for carnival 2022 about a month n half ago, it sold out in a couple hours. And there's also a minimum of 5 days required for carnival week at about 600usd a night

Not just Hyatt, in OWP, landlords charge 25-40k for carnival week and every single available apartment gets sold out on Airbnb.

tell me one band that gonna say, 'nah, we eh wah payment in US. go change it, and check we back'.

all that US goin into costume, lodging, a lil food and trinkets here and there. who ever collecting that US sending dat abroad one time. all it doing is easing up THEIR demand on the local forex reserves.
but to say that playing a big part in tt economy, not as much as u would have us believe.



is like a foreigner hearing trinidad have the largest pitch lake in the world, that is very productive. one would presume that we woudl ahve the best roads because of that. its a logical projection of expectation.
but reality is different.

Smash, that would make carnival a forex earner still and not a drain. Remember they are profiting.

No it make Trinidad a nation of waiters, chamber maids and store clerks.

These jobs are bare survival jobs

ZR,

Keep quite with yuh carnival negativity, it better be waiter earning a genuine living rather than wukking CEPEP.

That's not negatives.

That is a fact and idiots like you don't understand what direction this county is heading.

The red government is creating a dependent syndrome for citizens. All gone are skill jobs and the education that goes with it.

Idiots like you put carnival first infavor of people's progress. Carnival is one bid CEPEP and causes divisions.

Very soon if we continue on this path we will have a 10% that are super wealthy and 90% that is fighting to make ends meet.

[sMASH]

so when u say 80m us come in, it reaching, but not all of that circulating here.
same ting with a high GDP figure. a few big businesses propping up the figure, while the bulk of the people earning dregs.

is like trickle down economics for tourism.

[ScHoolboySoloQ]

I saw a friend post a status showing you need 3 years experience to sell in a store

[zoom rader]

When Trinis come for carnival, they sell US to family members the banks and government don't see this money

this actually good, this will actually help small people get around imburt and his 'managing the distribution'. it is of no use for a few big players hording it for their own use when they want to play in amercia

and now these same people not going to the bank to buy USD, still a win ZR

You are a total idiot

You call this a win? This is part reason why Venezuela is in problems.

Short term it is a win long term it sinks a country