TDC CEO: New markets for meeting facilities

T&T is in a position to take an important regional role in the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) market, Yolande Selman, acting CEO of the Tourism Development Company (TDC), said yesterday. “As the gateway to the Americas, T&T is poised to seize the myriad of opportunities that the MICE market offers. It is no secret that we are the place to do business and with industry predictions indicating that the MICE sector is poised for vigorous growth, this publication is timely for our destination,” she said. Selman spoke yesterday at the launch of the Meeting Planners’ Guide at MovieTowne. The guide, an initiative of the T&T Convention Bureau, a unit of the TDC, offers a comprehensive guide and authoritative information resource for both local and international meeting planners.

Selman said with a projected growth in business arrivals for T&T, meeting facilities have gained a new market. “As the agency charged with the responsibility to market and promote T&T’s tourism product, the TDC’s overarching aim is for our country to stay abreast of the fierce competition,” she said. “We aim to ensure that meeting planners interested in T&T have at their fingertips readily available information on meeting facilities, service providers and recreational opportunities, as destinations which offer spaces for business in a relaxed setting are growing in popularity.”

TDC chairman Umesh Rampersad said the Global Business Travel Association predicted in a recent report that companies and individuals will spend a record breaking US$1 trillion on business trips this year with the figure projected to rise in the years ahead. “The T&T Meeting Planners Guide is an invaluable instrument and a keystone moment in our unrelenting drive to firmly position this destination as the leader in meetings and conventions in the region,” he said. Rampersad said the TDC continues to market T&T as the place to do business. “We indeed mean business and demonstrates our commitment to the international conference and events market where the business traveller stays longer than the average  tourist and spends five to six times more,” he said. The TDC chairman said many large cities around the world like Las Vegas, Houston, London and Tokyo have meetings’ planners guides. He boasted that T&T’s is the first in the Caribbean region. “It is also more comprehensive than most as we have chosen to highlight our destination as a whole, but within the context of adding value to the agenda of both local and international meetings planners,” Rampersad said.