Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

Tourism Min­is­ter Dr Ru­pert Grif­fith says the state of emer­gency has not placed a damper on book­ings for Car­ni­val 2012. He said, how­ev­er, there was a de­cline in busi­ness trav­el and vis­i­tors dur­ing the state of emer­gency. Grif­fith said he had re­ceived re­ports that most of the bands that tar­get­ed vis­i­tors had al­ready been sold out. He said a check with ho­tels re­vealed there were "sol­id book­ings right through the Car­ni­val." Grif­fith was speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net news brief­ing on Thurs­day at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter in St Clair. He said: "Next year, like we did this year, we may have prob­lems of ac­com­mo­dat­ing all the per­sons who want to come to Trinidad and To­ba­go for Car­ni­val."

"Last year (2011) we had 49,000 vis­i­tors for Car­ni­val, it is ex­pect­ed to be more this (com­ing) year." "I do not think Car­ni­val would be af­fect­ed by the num­ber of per­sons who have al­ready made book­ings to come to Trinidad and To­ba­go for Car­ni­val at this point." Grif­fith said he was con­cerned about the de­cline in busi­ness vis­i­tors who had ex­pressed "a loss of con­fi­dence" in trav­el to T&T. The min­is­ter said many of them did not want to come to an en­vi­ron­ment where they would be "un­sure" of what was hap­pen­ing. He said they had the po­ten­tial to wait and trav­el when­ev­er they de­sired. He said those busi­ness trav­ellers have not in­di­cat­ed that they will not come to the coun­try but would "wait and see."