WTTC Survey Finds Greater Tourism Benefit for Trinidad & Tobago

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel and tourism is increasingly important to the Caribbean country of Trinidad & Tobago, generating an estimated 10.6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 –TTD14,116.9 million ($2.26 billion)- and 14.7 percent of total employment (nearly 88,000 jobs) across the wider travel and tourism economy.

More significantly, the contribution of the travel and tourism economy to GDP is expected to rise to 12.7 percent (TTD32,854.0 million or $5.29 billion) by 2019 while, over the same 10-year period, the number of jobs in travel and tourism will reach 124,000 –7.6 percent of total employment, or one in 5.7 jobs.

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 in London. The research program undertaken by WTTC and Oxford Economics included a unique training component involving the transfer of technical skills to a locally formed TDC team.

The main objective of this simulated TSA was to measure the contribution of travel and tourism to the national economy (GDP) and employment, since conventional figures (visitor arrivals and spending) tend to underestimate the sector’s overall importance. This results in underinvestment in tourism and inadequate emphasis in policy-making.

This study, which updates research initially conducted in 2005, was based on the United Nations Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework, 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.

The report shows that, for Trinidad alone, travel and tourism contributes 10 percent of GDP and 13 percent of employment, while for tourism-intensive Tobago it has a much higher economic significance, generating 37 percent of estimated GDP and just over 50 percent of all employment on the island.