Above: Port of Spain (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad and Tobago has officially become a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai announced this week.

Trinidad, which, unlike much of the region, has derived the vast majority of its GDP from the gas and oil sector, as opposed to tourism, is now looking to make a push in the sector.

“We are very happy to welcome Trinidad and Tobago back into the Organization, a country which was in fact a founding member of UNWTO as it pertained to the International Union of Official Travel ‎Organizations (IUOTO), the predecessor of UNWTO,” Rifai said. “Trinidad and Tobago has placed tourism as a priority within its strategy to diversify the national economy and we look forward to working with the tourism sector in the country to achieve this objective.”

At the recent Sustainable Tourism Conference in Trinidad, Tourism Minister Stephen Cadiz said the country would soon be unveiling a global marketing strategy for tourism.