Warren Salomon, President of the Trinidad & Tobago Tourism Development Company

In an exclusive interview Caribbean News Digital, Mr. Warren Salomon aired his views on the many development prospects for Trinidad & Tobago’s travel industry, as well as on the new context for the Caribbean region on the heels of shifting relations between Cuba and the United States.

Warren Salomon joined the Ministry in December 2014. Is that right?

I joined the Tourism Development Company of Trinidad & Tobago in early December.

How many times have you worked with the Tourism Development Company?

This is the third time. I’ve worked for the company in Trinidad & Tobago for over 15 years.

Not bad at all. Do you think that the shifting relation between the United States and Cuba can benefit the Caribbean as it focuses the attention of North American travelers on the region?

Yes, sure. I believe that there are people that don’t understand the Caribbean and the improvement of the United States-Cuba relation will open a window for them to get to know the region as a whole, with special emphasis on Cuba, of course. I think that Cuba is a mystery for North American people. That’s going to be very positive to the Caribbean.

Trinidad & Tobago is an eminently oil-bearing country and its wealth comes from that industry. Others activities and the education system are backed up by the oil-producing sector in the country. What’s the best platform, besides the travel industry, for Trinitarians to interact with other people?   

We have a significant manufacturing industry in Trinidad & Tobago, with higher development on the island of Trinidad. We trade with the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Those are our main trading partners. Even though we do trade in manufactured goods, if you look back at the energy sector Trinidad & Tobago was, until recently, one of the largest exporters of natural gas to the United States.

The energy sector continues to be very important for Trinidad & Tobago, but with the fallen oil prices the government of Trinidad & Tobago has to look at the front part of the economy, the front sectors of the economy to ensure that we remain a strong economic entity.

What’s the difference between Trinidad and Tobago?

There are some cultural differences. The population in Tobago is almost entirely African-descent, while in Trinidad you have 36% of the population of African-descent, but you also have Chinese, Syrian, and Lebanese. There are some religious differences, we have Hindu, Muslim. There are different celebrations of religious holydays.

From a geographic stand point, the water in Tobago is very nutrient rich because you have waters coming from the Orinoco mixing with the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic. A lot of what you see under the water in Tobago, huge animals, huge corals, it’s great for scuba diving. Trinidad doesn’t enjoy the kind of visibility under the water that Tobago has.

Even from a physical stand point there are some differences. Tobago has the protected rainforest in the western hemisphere since 1776. Trinidad has a lot of mountainous areas, but they don’t have that extensive rainforest system that Tobago has.

How many people do you receive on an annual basis?

Approximately 400,000.

How many in Trinidad and how many in Tobago?

Most of them go to Trinidad. Tobago will get about 50 thousand and the rest flows to Trinidad.

How about cruises?

There are cruises visiting both island, but those numbers are very small compared to the rest of the Caribbean. Anyway, that’s a great market for us. As the matter of fact, one of my colleagues is in Europe right now contacting cruise lines. That’s an area that we continue to grow, but still when you look at the rest of the Caribbean it’s very small. We get less than a hundred thousand cruise passengers a year.

How many airlines fly to Trinidad and from what countries?

We have most of the well-known international carriers flying into Trinidad. You have Caribbean Airlines that flies from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, New York, Toronto, London; American Airlines from Miami with two flights a day; you have United Airlines from Houston and New York with daily service; you have British Airways four times a week from London.

Tobago has many European carries coming in: British Airways, Virgin, Condor from Germany, a charter from Stockholm and Caribbean Airlines once a week from New York.

How’s tourism in Trinidad & Tobago? Is it exclusive, with high prices, aimed at tourists with high- buying power?

Trinidad & Tobago have the ability to satisfy the middle-to-upper end of the travel market. If you look at Tobago, for example, it has a mix of full-service hotels, but also some very high-end developments, which are large, luxurious.

Trinidad has the largest full-service hotels, brand-new hotels, the Hyatt, Hilton, Radisson. There is a mix between leisure and business in terms of visitors coming to the country.