Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe has told the Tourism Development Company's (TDC) Conventions Bureau to ensure T&T takes advantage of the billion-dollar convention market.
Citing a World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report which shows that business travel spending is expected to grow by 1.2 per cent to US$3 billion this year, the minister urged the agency to take advantage of this lucrative market.
"T&T Convention Bureau acts as a one-stop shop for meeting planners seeking independent information and assistance on hosting events in T&T," she said in her address at Meeting Planners Cocktail Reception and Cultural Night at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre held to welcome nine US planners who are in T&T on a study tour and assured they would find that the destination was a viable alternative.
"Tourism has become a major player in international commerce, with its business volume equaling or even surpassing that of oil exports, food products or automobiles," Cudjoe said.
"There is an increasing appetite for travel the world over and the Caribbean continues to be a region of high appeal."
In addition to the country's energy based economy, the minister said the financial and manufacturing sectors have bolstered T&T's position as a premier meetings destination in the Caribbean. She said growth in these areas, in addition to increasing airlift, advancing technology and ever-increasing internationally branded hotels, gave T&T the push it needed to develop the largest hotel conference facilities in the South Caribbean.
"North Americans are expected to travel in force this year, thanks to the improving US economy and strong US dollar. Out bound trips were up by five per cent last year, which was ahead of forecast," she said.
"WTTC stated that about 60 per cent of trips are for holiday purposes, while the remaining 40 per cent are split between business travel and visiting friends and family (VFR) in 2015. In the case of T&T, the reverse was true. Roughly 60 per cent of trips were split between business travel and VFR, while the remaining 40 per cent of trips are for holiday purposes."
Cudjoe said a report from IPK International, a leading travel consulting firm, predicted a five per cent increase in North American out bound travel this year, based on its Travel Confidence Index which measured travel intention. The firm's president Rolf D Freitag said 2016 should be the best year that the North American outbound travel market has ever seen.
With such an optimistic forecast, said Cudjoe, "it is expected that the conference and meeting scheduled ought to be full."
She said business tourism make up about 20 per cent of all arrivals to T&T and 80 per cent of business tourism arrivals come from the North American market.