The Tourism Ministry entered into a US$50,000 agreement with internationally renowned production company, Burnim and Murray to film 16 episodes of MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge. The series will be filmed at locations in both Trinidad and Tobago from early June, according to Tourism Minister, Howard Chin Lee.
The series, Minister Chin Lee said, is expected to boost the destination awareness and international branding of Trinidad and Tobago’s tourism industry.
With broadcasts to over 70 million households in the US and over 342 million households in 140 countries worldwide, “the international viewership of this particular series and consequently, visibility of Trinidad and Tobago is enormous”, said Minister Chin Lee. Each episode will be rerun eight times per week on average to a global audience. The Minister said the programme website receives an average of 200,000 hits per episode, and there will be added exposure on the MTV Website through programme excerpts, message boards and general information from the reality show.
The venture will create employment for film and production personnel and local businesses will benefit from a demand for services such as accommodation, catering, transport, office equipment and entertainment.
Minister Chin Lee said the Tourism Ministry also arranged for BET Digital Network to produce a documentary on this year’s Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. The documentary was hosted by United States actress Meagan Good and will be released in August on BET TV and BET JAZZ. An estimated 100 million people are expected to view the documentary.
International media houses including ‘Gourmet Magazine’ and ‘Bon Appetit’ covered the annual culinary fair, Taste T&T which was held from May 21-22 at the Hasley Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain. This event showcased the spectrum and diversity of Trinidad and Tobago’s cuisine. Several culinary entrepreneurs and the winners of the ‘Taste of the Caribbean’ competition, the 2005 National Culinary Team, participated in the event, which was another promotion by the Tourism Ministry.
