Message to the Student

Dear Student,

Welcome to the Tobago Hospitality & Tourism Institute (THTI). I thank you for choosing our organisation to help guide you through your studies in tourism and hospitality.

Tourism is the largest contributor to Tobago’s economy and is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. The Caribbean is also the region most dependent on tourism in the world. The number of jobs available in the sector is almost immeasurable; from culinary arts to accounting, hotel management to tour guiding, travel agency operations to scuba diving; the list is endless. The career opportunities are truly international and require a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, sophisticated technical skills and adherence to the highest industry standards. THTI can provide you with these and prepare you for success in the hospitality and tourism industries.

You have joined the THTI family at a very exciting time. We are evolving by improving our human resources, upgrading our infrastructure and expanding our course offerings to better provide for your needs as a student. You will see signs of this transformation as you move about campus and interact with your lecturers and other support staff.

A high point in our evolution was showcased on February 22nd, 2008 when we opened our new, spacious, first class kitchen and restaurant facilities: the Top O’ the Mill Restaurant & Bar. This addition to the campus serves as a state-of-the-art production kitchen and provides a superior training environment for advanced Culinary Arts and Food & Beverage students. This facility will equip you to work in any modern kitchen in the world.

In addition, we have constructed a training kitchen for beginner students. It utilises a station layout that incorporates miniature production units centred around the individual student; this allows for full interactive participation by all students and personal attention from the lecturer as you are taught the most basic culinary skills. These projects highlight our focus on becoming a leader in culinary arts training.

Our tourism and hospitality programmes are taught by qualified and experienced staff, and guest lecturers are used frequently to provide industry relevant teaching. In 2009, THTI became the first indigenous Tobagonian institution to be registered with the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago, and one of the very few nationally to become a full accreditation candidate.

As we seek to truly fulfil our mission of 'developing the human resource capacity by providing relevant programmes and courses, being a repository of information for the industry; using high quality teaching staff, state-of the-art infrastructure and facilities and providing quality service within a professional and hospitable environment',we are pleased to have you with us and hope that your THTI journey will be a fruitful and rewarding one.

Best wishes,
Wayne Pierre
Chief Executive Officer
Tobago Hospitality & Tourism Institute