Note: Published in February of 2023. At the time I wanted a local paper to ask and answer the following: can influencer marketing increase Trinidad and Tobago’s tourist arrivals? The answer seems to be yes, but there is a concern that the opportunity is not being seized. 

February 19, 2023 – Business Guardian

 Tracey Lyons-White is a Carnival content-creator. She has 23.5K followers on Instagram where close to 4000 people have watched her breakdown of just how much money she will spend to come to Trinidad to play mas this Carnival. And that’s not counting the other pages that have shared her post on Tic Tok and Facebook. And the comment sections underneath each continues to host a facinating discussion of not just the cost of Carnival, but what Carnival is in the first place.

“I think that with a lot of other content creators that I’ve spoken to it started as a passion or a hobby,” Lyons-White said. She created her Instagram page after her mentor suggested it and her number of followers grew. “I call myself a Carnival content-creator because that is all I pretty much do. My niche is nothing but Carnival.”  

 The emergence of the content-creator, someone who uses social media to share their opinions and experiences has been welcomed by marketers. Their social media posts do more than just entertain, some of their viewers are taking notes. There are brands that understand that addressing this targeted audience can do wonders for their sales goals, or in the case of tourism: visitor numbers.

 However, in discussing the Carnival economy, much has been made of the volatility of tourist’s interest in the festival. Dr. Jo-anne Tull is a lecturer within the Department of Creative and Festival Arts at UWI, St. Augustine. She has worked on identifying that there is a festival economy, which has made it easier for persons to understand the many elements that make-up the business of Carnival.  

 She says there is a clear profile of the Carnival visitor. “They are usually between ages of 22 to 36/38. One child, maybe none, professional. A lot of them have their own business. Many of them would perceive themselves as entrepreneurs, some will tell you point blank, ‘I’m a hustler’.”  

Dr. Tull said these visitors are very active on the Carnival circuit. These so-called “Carnival chasers” are always looking for the next new thing. They are very receptive to the opinions of influencers whose positive or negative review of a mas band, event or an entire destination matters to them. In fact, many of these Carnival-influencers come from within that visitor demographic. They are, she said, the Carnival tourist.

“I think they are very useful for a Carnival having a niche where it can always rejuvenate itself without having to do much,” she said. “Because, if they like your experience they like you. They coming back.”

Globey (not her real name) is the blogger behind GlobalCarnivalist.com. She has over 29,000 followers on her Instagram. Jamaica was one the seven Carnivals she visited in 2022. Over 80 people commented when she posted a photo of herself in a mostly pink Bachannal Jamaica costume with the comment, “I took this pic AFTER a day of playing mas.” A simple fun and effective review of a pretty costume she implied can withstand the rigours of the road.  

This is part of the attractiveness of the influencer endorsement. The audience feels as though they are being let in on a secret. Another popular post on her feed shows the type of bag she uses when playing mas, and what she considered to be essential items for the road. Similarly, Lyons-White has detailed what she uses to customise her mas boots and gives tips on how one can comfortably wear a wire bra without pain. Within the niche market that is Carnival the influencer can demystify key aspects of the festival from how to find and register for a band, to what parties to go to and more.

In fact when Globey started her blog in 2015  she did so because she realised how difficult it was to get information about Carnival if you are based outside T&T. She started sharing her process online and grew a captive audience who now look out for her reviews, tips and advice.

While in the world of inflencing Carnival-influencing may be a sub-set of the popular travel genre, some islands have been paying attention. “We know that some destinations have found ways to cleverly use them,” said Dr. Tull. “Especially if they’ve discovered that they are from the place through their parents.”

While content creators can, depending on the social media platforms they are using can earn money by the numbers of viewers or likes their channel or posts have. Many also make money off of brand-deals and sponsorship. Social media applications offer built in data-tracking, that the content creators use to let potential business partners know what their audience likes and number of responses a post may receive.  

Globey is not playing mas in Trinidad this year, prefering to wait for the post-covid kinks to be straightened out before her planned return in 2024. However, she believes T&T could benefit from a focused marketing campaign. Several regional Carnivals actively market their festival and she singles out Barbados for how well it promotes Kadooment maintaining a presence in various Caribbean carnivals in its quest.    

Trinidad though may be complacent. “We know we are the mecca so we don’t necessarily put the energy to marketing it more because we already have the name as mecca.” But she warns, without evolution it could die.

Lyons-White will be here. She said there was no question about coming to play mas once the restrictions were lifted. She said she wished that it was easier to access the cultural history of the festival. And like Globey she makes space on her platform to share what information she can to expand the narrative from parties and skimpy costumes. “I want people to understand that there’s so much more to it, and I don’t feel like the really important aspects of the Carnival and the culture is marketed the way it should be, ” she said.

Dr. Tull said ultimately there remains a need for research to determine the extent of the relationship influencer-marketing has within the Carnival. That information could then be used to figure out how best their online platforms can be used to encourage visitors to visit.

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