Tourism Trinidad announces creative arts campaign partnership

Tourism Trinidad Limited (TTL) has partnered with The Business of Carnival, the YouTube series by entertainment and sports attorney Carla Parris, to present the digitally-driven #StayHomeandLEVELUP campaign.

The objective is to educate stakeholders across the Caribbean diaspora about the legal and business aspects of the Carnival and cultural industry; to elevate business standards within the entertainment industry; and to assist the creative sector find ways of generating long-term revenue.

Established in June 2017 as a state enterprise under the Ministry of Tourism, the mandate of Tourism Trinidad Limited is the development and marketing of Trinidad’s tourism offerings and the promotion of Destination Trinidad; attracting tourism investment into Trinidad; and promoting education, awareness and co-operation in advancing expansion through tourism.

In announcing its partnership with The Business of Carnival, the Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of Tourism Trinidad Heidi Alert said that “COVID-19 has caused serious and unprecedented disruption throughout the global tourism sector, with a flood of cancellations and postponements of festivals and events affecting artists around the world and putting the global US$2,000 billion-dollar creative industry at risk. According to the United Nations agency UNESCO, the cultural and creative industry sectors generate annual revenues of US$2,250 billion and global exports of more than US$250 billion.

“Here at home, our rich and myriad heritage is rightly a source of great national pride and a tremendous draw for our international guests. We are, therefore, very pleased to collaborate on The Business of Carnival project, as it is an example of innovative thinking that will deliver real economic benefit to our local cultural and creative sector and find solutions beyond the current crisis,” explained Mrs Alert.

The Business of Carnival, the brainchild of Carla Parris (who also serves as host) and co-produced by Lynmerie Parris, is available free of charge on YouTube, and is designed to educate local and global audiences on the legal and business aspects of the Carnival and entertainment sectors within the Caribbean.

Now in its third season, the series features many of the region’s high-profile celebrities and industry leaders in the music, fashion, photography, and event industries across three countries — Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Los Angeles in the United States. With the re-release of six episodes in April 2020, entertainment and cultural industry practitioners will be provided with tips and best industry practices over the next few weeks aimed at addressing some of the most urgent legal and business concerns.

“I am thrilled to partner with Tourism Trinidad to bring this campaign to life,” said Carla Parris. “Since Tourism Trinidad is focusing on developing a clearly identifiable Trinidad brand, I found the tenets of The Business of Carnival will assist in raising awareness of the destination throughout the world whilst upgrading the skills set of our creative sector. I have been keenly observing the rapid spike in artistes hosting free live concerts on the various digital platforms, but I haven’t seen any discussion surrounding the dire need for these very artistes to use this time to invest in the restructuring of their businesses. Their focus should also be on protecting intellectual property assets such as the ownership of music, photography, art, and event names. Artistes should also use this time to focus on the creation of multiple sources of income so that, God forbid, another disaster of this magnitude occurs, persons would be less dependent on one source of income for their livelihoods.”

The campaign kicks off this month, and can be viewed on the show’s social media platforms (@thebusinessofcarnival on Facebook and Instagram, and @theboctt on Twitter), with full length episodes available on its YouTube channel (Carla Parris LLB, LLM).

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