THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) has welcomed the Ministry of Tourism’s involvement with the national football team’s preparation’ in the FIFA World Cup in Germany from June 9-July 9.
This follows yesterday’s launch of the official Soca Warriors website "www.socawarriorstt.com" at the Calypso Lounge, Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain.
"We think it’s a very positive step that we’re finally seeing tourism coinciding with sport in this country," TTFF marketing officer Peter O’Connor said.
"As you know in the past, we have not recognised this as a tourism sector at all. By using sport now to bring attention to the country, it would do an awful lot for the tourism industry and it could do an awful lot for the development of our sport way beyond 2006," he said.
"I would imagine the ministry would be putting our country on the map and it is up to us in sport, and I’m not talking football, to attract sporting events here, to attract teams here in the winter in their training camps," O’Connor said.
On December 2, both the TTFF and the Tourism Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding to capitalise on the marketing and branding opportunity made available courtesy the team’s qualification for Germany.
Tourism Minister, Senator Howard Chin Lee, recently formed a "Tourism Marketing Steering Committee" which includes officials from two ministries — Tourism and Sport/Youth Affairs, the Tobago House of Assembly, the Tourism Development Company and the TTFF.
Through the project, the Tourism Ministry will showcase the nation as a tourist spot by developing, producing, placing, funding and managing the content of all relevant marketing programmes for the promotion of TT’s tourism product, through the national team in Germany.
The website has information on the team as well as Trinidad and Tobago as a tourist destination, and will be regularly updated by the TTFF and the Tourism Development Company.
The site will feature player profiles, photos, games, links to major football and tourism sites and video streaming of three-minute footages of Trinidad and Tobago’s tourist attractions, 2006 World Cup qualifiers and music videos from the likes of Machel Montano, Destra Garcia, Mungal Patasar and Sharlene Boodram.
When persons visit the website, they will also witness an electronic logo, which will soon be aired on local television, at the bottom of the screen, during commercials and selected shows. The five to ten second sequence includes a memorable, signature piece of music that incorporates elements of the steelpan.
There were a number of football personalities at yesterday’s media briefing, including TTFF president Oliver Camps; coach Leo Beenhakker and his assistants Whim Rijsbergen and Anton Corneal; managers Bruce Aanensen and George Joseph; technical staff members Michael "Brow" Maurice, Wayne Lawson, Ikin Williams, Zeph Nicholas, Esmond O’Brien; and team members Scott Sealy, Cornell Glen, Anton Pierre and Anthony Wolfe.
And, among the firms involved in the project are Proudfoot Communications Limited (website development), McCann Erickson (Trinidad) Limited (advertising) and JCD & Associates (video content).