GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

While this coun­try wel­comed the new US$129.83 mil­lion ter­mi­nal at the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, Crown Point, To­ba­go about a week ago, de­vel­op­men­tal econ­o­mist Dr Mar­lene Attzs says the fa­cil­i­ty should not be seen as just an­oth­er in­fra­struc­ture project - rather it must be a tool for eco­nom­ic trans­for­ma­tion, a cat­a­lyst for growth, job cre­ation and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment for the is­land.

In an in­ter­view with the Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian, Attzs not­ed many oth­er Caribbean coun­tries have seen sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits from their in­vest­ment in im­proved, mod­ernised, ex­pand­ed air­port fa­cil­i­ties. These Caribbean des­ti­na­tions, all heav­i­ly de­pen­dent on tourism, set bench­marks and op­por­tu­ni­ties for learn­ing based on how they have used the air­port ex­pen­di­tures to re­alise tan­gi­ble gains in tourism rev­enues.