Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 20/Feb 06:01

Carnival and creativity: A glance from the services mindset

Daren Lee Sing CEO, TTCSI Carnival, often regarded as one of the world's largest and most vibrant celebrations of music, dance, and culture, takes place annually, attracting thousands of locals and international visitors. Carnival is not just an event; it is a celebration of the nation’s rich history, creativity, and diverse cultural heritage. TTCSI delves into the economic, social, and cultural benefits and costs of our Carnival, highlighting its role in creativity, tourism, and economic development, while also addressing the challenges it presents. Carnival’s roots date back to the French colonial era, evolving from European traditions and African rituals and grew into a festival attracting thousands of visitors each year. It consists inter-alia of stickfighting, mas, steelpan and calypso/soca music. Stickfighting is an old African tradition which was brought by slaves. The place in which the battle takes place is the gayelle. An important part to the gayelle is also the music and the chantwell leads the call-and-response which is better referred to as lavway. This fight is often accompanied by a dance known as "carray" and the winner is determined by the first fighter that draws blood. Benefits for Carnival includes tourism revenue, SME employment and international recognition. Tourism revenue generated approximately $70,000,000 in 2024 with the average stay of one person being 13 days. Carnival is known to generate approximately $400 million in direct economic activity annually with the minister of tourism stating that local and visitor spending accumulated more than US$1 billion. Temporary job creation for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) generated more than 15,000 jobs for Carnival, said Minister of Tourism Randall Mitchell. Carnival supports thousands of temporary jobs in multiple sectors such as event management, music production, catering, arts and craft and costume design. These SME’s thrive during Carnival as they mainly depend on this period for the majority of their income. Sharing the culture at the international level is vital to our growth if we wish to consistently increase our earnings during Carnival and beyond. During the off-season, it is especially important for our biggest musical artistes to become exports themselves, and go abroad to various diaspora events and locations such as the Tribe created 2023 Melé Destinations in Cancun, Mexico where Machel Montano was one of the headline performers. The Caribbean awards in Brooklyn, New York is another excellent way to advertise our culture which was not known at one time. With the largest Caribbean diaspora making up approximately 20 per cent of New York City, it is essential that we continue to share our culture and advertise to entice foreigners to visit TT for Carnival. There are benefits and costs relative to Carnival. Some include but are not limited to losses in forex, barriers for SMEs seeking to compete with global manufacturers and waste management. Losses in forex may be due to importing a majority of raw materials needed to create Carnival costumes from China and other locations. Being the most obvious, importing these materials is the cheaper option and even though there are suppliers that we can purchase from domestically, the materials are sourced from China in bulk. Videsh Maharaj, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, said, “manufacturing the costumes is extremely labour intensive and persons are not willing to engage in such labour intensive operations if they do not get compensated fairly, which is why we tend to import such a huge quantity of materials to make carnival costumes.” From the SMEs' perspective, decades ago Carnival bands had artisans who constructed costumes, but as time passed, they moved away, or have passed away, taking their skills with them. Some designers are hired by competing carnivals, and they utilise their skills to generate forex for themselves outside of TT. The conundrum for many bandleaders is that they may wish to support local, and buy local, but the scarcity of labour to complete the tasks in real-time does not exist. These SMEs may not be able to handle the workload, the time constraints, or have the funding needed to add other people to get the job done. Sourcing of labour is another problem for SMEs, and as long as no one wants to work on assembling these costumes for the greatest show, TT may continue to import the majority of raw materials from China and others. This roadblock has the potential to hinder local production of Carnival costumes for years to come. Waste, especially during Carnival, from food, plastic bottles and parts of costumes on our roadways, often make their way to our drains, rivers and streams. Tribe has teamed up with the Environmental Management Authority for the iCare initiative which bans plastic straws from their events and engages in recycling. This should be made a normal practice for all bands and events to limit the amount of trash during and after the carnival period and thus eliminate this challenge. In looking at 2025 and the state of emergency, the optics, as viewed from the eyes of a foreigner googling TT, or via other media, may hinder tourists from visiting our country. To counter this, all citizens must do their part to promote a positive brand and image for our country at carnival and always. This moreso, that Carnival is considered a main tourist attraction and driver of forex. Our brilliance must manifest itself in all that we do. TT must continue to be grateful for our people’s creativity and ingenuity. These are unique selling propositions and critical for sustainability. If TT is to continue to boast of having the “greatest show in the world,” then all stakeholders must come together to retain that bragging right.   The post Carnival and creativity: A glance from the services mindset appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.