British tourists Arin and Han­nah, who are in Trinidad and To­ba­go to cel­e­brate Car­ni­val 2025, ad­mit­ted that when they first learned about the cur­rent State of Emer­gency (SoE), they were a bit wor­ried. 

The tourists said that since their ar­rival, they have felt safe.

“A lit­tle bit, but we were like, ‘I’m sure we’ll be fine,’ and we have felt re­al­ly safe here,” Han­nah said.

“We were a bit ner­vous about com­ing, but we knew this coun­try, we knew the peo­ple, and we knew there would be no wor­ries af­ter all,” Arin added.

Arin and Han­nah were among sev­er­al tourists seen en­joy­ing the Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions yes­ter­day at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Thomas and his wife, who came from Den­mark, said they had been warned by fam­i­ly and friends about the crime sit­u­a­tion in this coun­try and the SoE, but so far, they have had a good time.

“I knew we had to be cau­tious, but I didn’t know it was that bad,” he said.

He added that every cit­i­zen they met while in T&T had warned them about crime and giv­en them tips on what not to do.

“Don’t bring any jew­ellery or any­thing, but I just told my wife to­day—we’ve been here since this morn­ing, and not once have we felt in­se­cure,” he said.

On De­cem­ber 30, 2024, the Gov­ern­ment de­clared a na­tion­wide SoE due to on­go­ing crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty that could en­dan­ger pub­lic safe­ty.

On Jan­u­ary 13, 2025, Par­lia­ment ex­tend­ed the SoE by three months.

Guardian Me­dia al­so spot­ted an­oth­er group of Danes along the “Drags” at the QPS. A spokesper­son for the group, who did not give his name, said that while they did not can­cel their trip be­cause of the crime sit­u­a­tion, they were be­ing cau­tious.

“We’re go­ing in groups—no one is go­ing alone... we have thought about it,” the spokesper­son said.

Rick­ey, who was born in Trinidad and To­ba­go but mi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States, said the SoE or crime did not af­fect his de­ci­sion to vis­it for Car­ni­val 2025.

“There is crime every­where,” he said.

Much like lo­cal mas­quer­aders cross­ing the stage, the tourists said they were too were torn be­tween Machel Mon­tano’s Pardy and Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Car­ry It for the Road March ti­tle.

Arin, how­ev­er, is a Yung Bred­da fan.

At the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, sev­er­al mas bands like Ex­ou­sia, Moko Somokow, Tribe, Pa­parazzi, and Lost Tribe all crossed the stage be­gin­ning their jump-up with Pardy and end­ing with Car­ry It.