Above: Port of Spain

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The recent Cabinet reshuffle by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar means the country now has a new Minister of Tourism.

Chandresh Sharma is now the country’s top tourism official, succeeding Stephen Cadiz, who has been reassigned as Minister of Transport.

The moves come as part of what was Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s third Cabinet reshuffle since taking office in 2010.

It also means Sharma is the country’s third Tourism Minister in the same amount of time, following Cadiz and former Tourism Minister Rupert Griffith.

While Cadiz only served for just over a year (following a June 2012 reshuffle), he had helped lead a major push to develop tourism in the country, which has, unlike most of its neighbours in the region, maintained an economy that was heavy on energy production and light on tourism.

It’s not yet clear whether this will mean a shift in policy for the Ministry or whether it will impact what Cadiz had called a major international tourism marketing push.

The Cabinet realignment led to changes at eight Ministries in Trinidad.