Last week’s column focused on stagnation in the tourism sector and the weak marketing of TT. The point is buttressed by an interview video you can find on YouTube between a St Lucian journalist and an official of the Tourism Development Company.

The exchange, probably recorded last year, covered a TT roadshow to St Lucia in an attempt at luring St Lucians to our islands. The presenter couldn’t mask his incredulity over the 10-person TDC juggernaut dispatched to that island.

The St Lucia thrust was all data based, explained the TDC representative.

Between 2009 and 2010, eight thousand St Lucians travelled to TT.

That “tsunami” of humanity, coupled with tepid interest in major markets like the US, UK and Europe, pushed the TDC to rekindle that perceived romance between TT and St Lucia.

Inter-Caribbean tourism is nothing to scoff at, but a ten-person contingent to the island of St Lucia feels like overkill for an organisation which always seems faced with funding challenges. Even more troubling is the fact that the bloated roadshow, as a concept, is alive and well in the age of digital media.

The TDC rep also referenced declines in tourist arrivals from the European market. This was attributed to lower cost destinations nearer to travellers’ home countries.

Proximity and cost are undeniable factors, but that’s precisely where creative marketing comes in.

Brazil isn’t exactly next door for European travellers, but in 2015 just under one million people flooded that South American nation for their world famous carnival. On the other side of the planet, of the 25 million tourists visiting Thailand each year, an estimated one million are British citizens.

Those far-from-home destinations are obviously pulling in European globe trekkers with an experience that’s tough for other contenders to match.

In other words, today’s crowded market means you have to come good.

Recently, a clever video marketing both JetBlue airlines and Jamaica was burning up social media. It was a simple, but effective premise.

Two smartly dressed actors surrounded by the accoutrements of Jamaican culture ensnared harried, frozen-to-the-bone commuters at the Jamaica subway station in Queen’s New York.

The pitch to passers-by was they could escape their frigid existences temporarily for sunny Jamaica.

The catch: you had to swap your subway ticket for a JetBlue ticket. The idea came to a New York ad exec while on the daily commute of the living dead.

Seeing tourism posters lining the walls of subway stations he thought to himself, “How can I bring those posters to life?” That lightbulb moment made all the difference.

The video works because it appeals directly to the emotions of work and weather frazzled New Yorkers.

The Jamaica Tourist Board obviously saw the immense potential behind such a thought-driven strategy and jumped on board.

We are surrounded by examples of innovative tourism marketing.

Lately I’ve been watching a television series called An Island Parish. It features the idyllic lifestyles of the locals in British Anguilla.

After watching the first two episodes, I wanted to go there myself.

But why? There isn’t anything particularly special about British Anguilla. There’s snorkelling, sailing, sunbathing and chartered boat tours.

Tobago has all of those touristy distractions. The television series though, plays up the indomitable character of the islanders and their everyday lives.

It’s a simple concept, yet it averages two million viewers each week.

The programme wasn’t conceived as a tourism marketing gimmick, but a recent article suggests thatGoogle searches from the UK for holidays in Anguilla surged by 50 per cent since the show began.

Here in TT we still seem to not appreciate the importance of creative marketing to boost our visibility and google rankings. The international tourist has evolved, yet our marketing scarcely reflects that.

Video and pictures circulated on Facebook of the warm welcome for tourists at the airport.

Moko jumbies, steel pan, free doubles andCarnival care packages were on offer. Caribbean Airlines boasts of 250 flights bringing an estimated 30,000 tourists. That, however, should not be mistaken as tourism marketing as it caters strictly for those who have already decided to come. Sure, there will be some word of mouth benefit. How many of those visitors though, are VFR’s (visiting friends and relatives).

The US market is said to account for 40 per cent of visitors and most of them, according to the TDC, are returning Trinis.

While the folding money brought in by VFRs is always welcome, research suggest that most of the US dollars they bring with them find their final resting place at the homes of relatives where many of them stay.

We need a marketing thrust that will entice travellers who will stay at hotels, patronise local restaurants, book tour guides, and visit tourist spots (such as they are).

Trinidad and Tobago is being left behind in almost every sphere of development by countries that didn’t have a fraction of the resources we did to fund our economic diversification.

If there isn’t an immediate and dramatic overhaul of our thinking on tourism marketing, the fortunes of the sector are bound for further decline.