Tourism Trinidad has unveiled plans to grow visitor arrivals by seven per cent over the coming financial year.

In total, the island hopes to welcome 380,000 overseas visitors over the coming 12 months, while also attaining an average hotel occupancy rate of 64 per cent.

The figures build on the current year’s tourism performance, with Trinidad having already recorded 276,269 international visitors (an increase of two per cent over 2018) for the period January to September.

Howard Chin Lee, chairman of the Tourism Trinidad said: “This is an ambitious agenda for Trinidad’s tourism.

“Our focus is on developing a clearly identifiable Trinidad ‘brand’ to raise awareness of the destination throughout the world, deliver an outstanding visitor experience and establish Trinidad as a destination of choice.

“To this end, we have developed a comprehensive roadmap on how we can partner with government and stakeholders to take our tourism sector to new heights.”

Tourism Trinidad is also developing a framework to assist local communities to build on their tourism offerings to attract more visitors to this destination, create more jobs and strengthen its overall contribution to the national economy. 

In this regard, a one-year Strategic Action Plan has been developed and nineteen new hires have been onboarded to the company, to help drive the strategic agenda of the organisation.

The company will soon launch its brand identity and website for Destination Trinidad with marketing campaigns rolling out in major international markets around the globe.

These campaigns, including a Diaspora campaign, aim to boost arrivals in the coming months, and in the lead up to Carnival 2020, and attract visitors year-round to the destination.