Cherisse Moe

The ver­dict is not yet out but al­ready there are mixed re­views about To­ba­go be­ing the host of the 2011 Miss World Pageant, to be held in De­cem­ber.At a time when just about every sec­tor is clam­our­ing for wage in­creas­es, some ar­gue that the pub­lic's purse should not be used to host a beau­ty pageant.But, there are those who see on­ly pos­i­tive things com­ing out of such a ven­ture-chief among them, for­eign ex­change.One such per­son is pageant co-or­di­na­tor, Daniel See­baran, who says he is keep­ing his fin­gers crossed that To­ba­go will get the judges' nod to host the an­tic­i­pat­ed event.If it does, it would be the first time in the pageant's 60 year his­to­ry that it would be held on lo­cal soil.The Miss World pageant was held on Oc­to­ber 30, 2010, in Sanya, Peo­ple's Re­pub­lic of Chi­na and in Nas­sau, Ba­hamas, in 2009.

Li Baiqing, Sanya's deputy di­rec­tor of tourism, has said tourist ar­rivals in Sanya, half of whose 200,000 peo­ple are em­ployed by the in­dus­try, were up 23 per cent from the pre­vi­ous year at 3.7 mil­lion im­me­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the first Miss World broad­cast in 2003.See­baran said To­ba­go stood to ben­e­fit in sim­i­lar ways and the show had the pow­er to "im­me­di­ate­ly boost" the lo­cal econ­o­my.He stat­ed that the com­pe­ti­tion would ex­pose some two bil­lion peo­ple to "the charms of To­ba­go," show­case the is­land's cul­ture, as well as cat­a­pult the na­tion's artistes, who will be per­form­ing at the event, on­to the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

"The his­to­ry of Miss World speaks for it­self. Since Chi­na be­gan host­ing it, tourist ar­rivals are up con­sid­er­ably and now it's one of the most vis­it­ed places on earth. For us, it would be great. There will be a lot of tourists, in­ter­na­tion­al del­e­ga­tions and fans of the del­e­ga­tions com­ing to To­ba­go. That means, ho­tels are ex­pect­ed to be booked...There will be an im­me­di­ate eco­nom­ic boom. We hope the pow­ers that be see the wis­dom in hav­ing it here."

Lack­lus­tre tourism sec­tor

Not­ing that it could al­so kick start the is­land's lack­lus­tre tourism sec­tor, See­baran said the time had come for the pop­u­la­tion to see the big­ger pic­ture, as To­ba­go's econ­o­my had seen "bet­ter times".He added, "For two hours, our cul­ture will be on dis­play. I know peo­ple are think­ing about the mon­ey but we are hop­ing that the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly can meet us halfway, in terms of the fi­nan­cial in­put. To­ba­go is go­ing to ben­e­fit most­ly, as it's more of a tourist-based econ­o­my."And while the ul­ti­mate de­ci­sion will be made "by Fri­day", See­baran stat­ed that he re­mained con­fi­dent that To­ba­go would emerge vic­to­ri­ous, as Ju­lia Mor­ley, own­er of Miss World Ltd-who vis­it­ed To­ba­go in Feb­ru­ary-had "fall­en in love" with the is­land.See­baran said the Van­guard Ho­tel Lim­it­ed, lo­cat­ed in Scar­bor­ough, is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed in No­vem­ber, just in time for the com­pe­ti­tion.

Sound eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits

Mean­while, Mi­nor­i­ty Leader in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and po­lit­i­cal leader of the To­ba­go Or­gan­i­sa­tion of the Peo­ple, Ash­worth Jack, shied away from giv­ing his per­son­al com­ments about the pageant, but not­ed that he would soon dis­cuss the is­sue with Min­is­ter of To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment, Ver­nel­la Al­leyne-Top­pin.He said, "In the last cou­ple weeks I've have had mixed views about it. Some per­sons be­lieve the mon­ey could be bet­ter spent do­ing oth­er things, oth­ers think it would be a very good thing for To­ba­go. As a politi­cian, one of the things I have learnt over the years, is that we have to lis­ten to the views of the peo­ple."