Weak da­ta cap­ture and ad-hoc event-fo­cused man­age­ment are among two of the main bar­ri­ers pre­vent­ing T&T from prop­er­ly mon­etis­ing its Car­ni­val prod­uct.

This from Dr Kei­th Nurse, pres­i­dent of the Col­lege of Sci­ence Tech­nol­o­gy and Ap­plied Arts T&T (COSTATT), who shared his in­sights with the Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian on how this coun­try can prop­er­ly cash in on its most tout­ed fes­ti­val.

Nurse is a for­mer mem­ber of Gov­ern­ment’s Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment Ad­vi­so­ry Board and an econ­o­mist, said, “We need to break out of the nar­row event-fo­cused ap­proach where we on­ly or­gan­ise for the time lead­ing up to Car­ni­val. The mar­ket in T&T has peaked. The da­ta in terms of ar­rivals and even vis­i­tor ex­pen­di­tures has plateaued since about 2014,” he said.