Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell yesterday called on mas bands to produce the evidence showing that crime and the high costs associated with participating in Carnival are major deterrents to foreigners.
Speaking on Tuesday with Guardian Media, large bands such as Tribe, Yuma and Ronnie and Caro expressed concerns that this country’s international image when it comes to crime, along with what they called the high cost of airfare and hotel accommodation, was discouraging and pricing masqueraders away from Trinidad and Tobago.
Asked for his perspective about the impact of crime yesterday, Minister Mitchell said, “What evidence did the bands use to support the contention that crime was a definite factor in the reduction in registration?”
Both Tribe and Yuma explained that there had been a slight dip in registration. Yuma said they were expecting a small decrease following last year’s “Mother of all Carnivals” while Tribe announced a ten per cent decline in registration.
Minister Mitchell posited his own reason for their lower numbers.
“Allow me to speculate that the ten per cent “dip” may very well be due to the emergence of new bands such as Spirit Mas and others that also report being sold out,” he said.
He also postulated that the State did not try to control the media’s narrative on crime and that too could contribute to the negative international image and the perception that other islands in the Caribbean were explicitly safer.
“Unlike those countries for which tourism is their main source of revenue and contributor to GDP, there is no suppression of the reporting of crime and criminality in this country’s media publications with unedited and gruesome details which includes photographs in the highlights.
“You will find suppressed any matter that has the potential to cause blemish to those countries whose economies are tourism based,” Mitchell stated.
He added, “This (crime) is a region wide phenomenon occurring at endemic levels and in recognition of this grave problem being faced by the Caribbean. Caricom recently summoned a meeting held right here in Port-of-Spain to address this very serious issue.
“The meeting was attended by the heads of Caricom including Barbados, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines ... countries explored the adverse impacts and fallout from rampant criminality.”
The minister said that Trinidad Carnival was always relatively safe within the context of the number of people in the country at that time.
“Trinidad Carnival has been very safe as far as my memory takes me back with minimal incidents of crime for which credit must be given to the police and the protective services having regard to it being the largest festival in the region with tens of thousands of revellers and party goers at any point during the period,” Mitchell said.
Concerning the high costs associated with Carnival, Ronnie McIntosh of Ronnie and Caro had told Guardian Media that the airfare and accommodation costs were pricing people out of choosing destination T&T.
But Mitchell said, “We (the State) are not pricing anything. In this free market scenario, bands, airlines, and hotels are all independent entities. Bands are free to price their offerings, airlines price their flights, and hotels price their rooms all guided by economic factors such as the basic demand and supply. During the Carnival period, demand outstrips supply.”