Marketing Strategy Advice for Trinidad

How can Trinidad, through destination marketing, create and sustain a competitive advantage, by expanding the existing market of U.S. business tourism and attracting the U.K. ecotourism market?

Trinidad is relatively new to tourism as the government’s focus has mainly been on the energy sector. However, in its move to diversify, tourism has become important. It is seen that the destination has been performing well in the United States (U.S.) business tourists segment, which currently amounts to roughly 18,600 tourists, and has great potential to develop the ecotourism niche by attracting this type of tourists from the United Kingdom (U.K.), which stands only at approximately 100 tourists (Ministry of Tourism, n.d.). The marketing strategy presented aims to increase visitor arrivals to the destination, from these two segments as well as visitor expenditure, primarily from the U.S. business tourism segment. In order to obtain establish a foundation for the report a literature review on key concepts of destination competitiveness, destination marketing, business tourism and ecotourism was carried out. Secondary information on the destination was obtained through desk research using a number of online sources. Once the information was gathered the context of the destination established, a theoretical framework was developed for the marketing strategy. This guides the process from the context and resources, identifying the segments, the destination competitiveness and examining the trends that would have an impact in achieving the goals of increase visitor arrivals and expenditure.

Figure 1. Framework of destination competitiveness for Trinidad

Trinidad offers a tourism experience unique to other destinations in the Caribbean. It is rich in natural resources, the geographical features shows its past connection to the South American mainland. This gives the destination a competitive advantage over the rest of the countries in the region. The diverse population is open to tourism and for the most part have similar cultural aspects like the U.S. and U.K. The sector contributes is to contribute an estimated 3.2% directly to GDP (WTTC, 2016), and directly employs approximately 29,000 persons. The average number of tourists to the destination is approximately 420,300 tourists per year (3 year average), with the main country markets being United States with roughly 38%, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom with roughly 12% and 10% respectively. The visiting friends and relatives segment is the largest with 40%, this is followed by leisure visitors 28% and business or convention tourist with 16% (Ministry of Tourism, n.d.). Although ecotourism is a small segment it is seen as a viable niche with great potential. This marketing strategy deviates from the Ministry of Tourism, which focuses on both Trinidad and Tobago, as the strategy in this report focuses on the island of Trinidad only.

Currently there are approximately 18,600 U.S. Business tourists who visit Trinidad per year (Ministry of Tourism, n.d.). Typically they are mature persons, averaging between 43 to 46 years and have an average annual income of 152,868 USD. The average U.S. business tourist spends approximately 1,874 USD per trip (NTTO, n.d). The goal is to increase U.S. business tourists travelling to Trinidad by 25% to 23,250 tourists and also to increase the total expenditure to $2.750 USD per trip by 2020. The destination’s competitive advantages such as direct airlift, its industrialised nature, and ICT readiness support this market segment in its success. Some trends which may also be opportunities to achieve these goals include ‘Rise of technology’, ‘Remote working and digital nomadism’, ‘Bleisure’. The ecotourism niche is still in its developing stage, which indicates there is great potential. Globally ecotourism has also been soaring in popularity and has been generating a large volume of demand (Diamantis, 2010). In total the destination only receives approximately 520 ecotourists per year, of which 107 or 20% are U.K. tourists. Research has shown that a number of U.K. tourists are interested in ecotourism, they range between 35-54 years, and are relatively affluent with incomes between £15,000-20,000, a large proportion 21.4% have incomes of over £30.000. Although the majority usually stay between 8 days and 2 weeks, a large proportion 39.5% take longer holidays of 3 weeks and over. The main goal is to increase U.K. ecotourists to Trinidad to 1.000 tourists by 2020. Trinidad has a number of competitive advantages in this niche due to its geographical makeup, two key attractions are the variety of bird species and it is a nesting ground for a number of sea turtles.

Trinidad can create and sustain a competitive advantage, by expanding the existing market of U.S. business tourism and attracting the U.K. ecotourism market. In order to achieve this, there are five marketing strategies recommended: 1. creating a promotional plan, 2. creating a promotional video for ecotourism, 3. creating a central conference and meeting centre, 4. extending the length of stay with bleisure and 5. creating partnerships with ecotourism related organisations. It is also recommend that further research on the image perception of Trinidad, is carried out and additional research with potential tourists and interviews with tourism professionals and stakeholders in the destination.