Yachting body

The Yachting Service Industry needs urgent attention to once again be a foreign exchange earner for the country.

This is the view of president of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries (TTCSI) Mark Edghill, who said Customs & Excise data show that 2000 was the best year for arrival of yachts, with almost 3,000 visiting our shores.

Unfortunately, Edghill said T&T has not been able to maintain that momentum and the decline has been steady, with just over 100 vessels recorded in 2021.

He expressed in the TTCSI’s monthly Eye on Services, that the steady decline of T&T’s marine services industry accelerated substantially over the last two years, precipitated mainly by the Covid-19 pandemic affecting tourism flows (regionally and internationally), as well as issues inherent in the industry.

Both Edghill and Jesse James, vice-president of the Yachting Services Association of Trinidad and Tobago (YSATT), point to the need for an upgrade of the legislative and regulatory environment, as well as institutional reform to ensure sustainable development of this country’s marine services industry.

“Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation as a marine services destination has taken a serious blow over the years,” the TTCSI president notes. “Quite simply, from the moment visitors enter our shores, they are not made to feel welcome,” they both articulated.

James and Edghill highlight the concerns raised by stakeholders over what they describe as tedious and inconsistent immigration and customs entry and departure procedures, and a generally unpleasant demeanour on the part of some immigration and customs officials when dealing with yachties.

“Visitors tell us that Trinidad and Tobago is the laughing stock of the Caribbean when it comes to clearing in upon arrival,” James said. “They can spend an hour and a half, sometimes up to three or four hours trying to clear into our Customs & Immigration. Up the islands, they spend five or ten minutes,” he outlined.

According to James the implementation of a single harmonised form that can be accessed online by visitors will allow them to check in ahead of arrival, saving them hours of filling out paperwork when they arrive. It also can be used to inform the relevant authorities beforehand of the visiting yacht or leisure craft.

James also pointed to the port health clearance certification, which remains in place for Chaguaramas, and is proving to be a turn-off for visitors and potential visitors.

He hopes the Minister of Health will help to resolve this issue soon. “If we can remove that requirement, that will be a major step forward to making us a more welcoming destination,” he noted.

James indicated that the sail clear system—the backbone of which is the Advanced Passport Information System (APIS) implemented in 2009 for the Cricket World Cup—is currently being used by our competitors up the islands to process visitors quickly and easily.

“T&T is supposed to be a leader in the Caribbean but in this area, we are very far behind our regional neighbours. This is another minus in our procedures and protocols driving away potential marine services clients,” he argued.

Edghill makes a case for modernising the current maritime legislation governing how marine vessels are treated once they enter T&T waters.

He said apart from the obvious impact on tourism, it adds another frustrating layer of unpleasant bureaucracy for our visitors, rather than ensuring a smooth process.

“All our competitors in the region are doing a much better job than we are in terms of cutting down the red tape and making it easy for visitors to enter their countries and move around freely and easily,” Edghill opined.

Furthermore, he noted that visitors entering this country at the airport can move around freely without having to repeatedly check in with the authorities, the way they must if they enter through this country’s seaports.

“If a marine services/yachting client wants to move from one location to another say, between both islands they must check back with customs to get approval for their planned movement and then they are allowed to move to the location they desire,” Edghill explained.

Another challenge the local marine services industry faces said the TTCSI president is in the area of national security.

He said the perceived crime situation in T&T, piracy attacks on cruisers between here and Grenada, and the dark spectra of organised transnational crimes such as drugs and human trafficking, also are taking a serious toll on the country’s international reputation as a marine services destination of choice.

He pleaded that government must move quickly to resolve these issues.

Edghill paints a grim picture of how the industry now looks. He said Chaguaramas has moved from having 2,700 spaces for yachts onshore in its heyday, to less than 800 spaces today.

“It is much more profitable for landowners when the energy sector entities use the land compared with marine services clientele,” he added.

Also commenting was TTCSI’s chief executive officer Vashti Guyadeen who said when the industry was booming yacht repair services earned some US$56 million in foreign exchange, and serviced no fewer than 2,700 yachts and leisure craft annually.

Today, she indicated the major boatyards are operating at between 20-50 per cent of their capacity, which translates directly into substantially less income being earned by them, and all the ancillary and supporting businesses that operate in marine services.

Guyadeen said n 2002 the marine services industry—specifically, the yachting sub-sector—contributed approximately TT$130-$150 million to the T&T economy, and employed over 1,000 people directly, and thousands more indirectly.

“Stakeholders were optimistic about further growth as the country was seen as one of the prime yachting destinations in the Caribbean for years. In addition, the then Government had made a stated commitment to economic diversification, highlighting seven key areas of economic activity which included marine services,” she concluded.

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