876,436 visit T&T in one year

(Trinidad Express) Almost one million—exactly 876,436 people—from 203 countries came to Trinidad and Tobago between July 2010 and June 2011, Minister in the Ministry of National Security Collin Partap said yesterday.

Partap was replying to a question in the House of Representatives, Port of Spain.

Giving a breakdown by country, he said that the largest groups of foreigners came from North America and the United Kingdom—180,221 Americans, followed by 54,733 Canadians and 46,680 British.

The fourth-largest group of foreigners to come to these shores originated from the South American country of Guyana—with 38,019.

The fifth-largest group were Venezuelans with 20,327 persons from that country coming to Trinidad and Tobago between July of last year and June of this year.

The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth-largest groups were St Vincent and the Grenadines (16,090 people); Barbados (15,534), Jamaica (12,838) and Grenada (12,900).

During this period, Partap said that some 369,714 Trinidadian and Tobagonian people returned home.

Some 4,860 nationals from India, 3,022 Chinese nationals and 1,268 Nigerians came during that period, he said.

Some 6,695 nationals of St Lucia and 5,470 from Suriname came, with Holland, Germany and France each having approximately 6,000 nationals coming to Trinidad and Tobago while 2,538 Cubans, 2,513 Mexicans and 4,222 people from the Philippines as well as 2,865 Spanish nationals came to Trinidad and Tobago during the period.

In giving the statistics, the Minister did not say what percentage of visitors who came to the country during that one-year period stayed or returned to their country of origin.

The answer to the question was long and MPs took the opportunity to joke around a bit.

When Partap said 3,985 Colombians came, Sport Minister Anil Roberts quipped: “Yes, Colombians”, while Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma perked up asking: “How many Colombians?”