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15 years, Cooper has been on the board of directors since 2009.
Vanessa Ledesma-Berrios, long-time director of conferences and
events at CHTA, has been with the organization since 1999. She has
18-plus years of experience in meetings and conference planning, and
a broad knowledge of the Caribbean, having orchestrated some of the
biggest events in the region.
Driving Business
The organization’s mission remains the same for the federation of 32
national hotel and tourism associations throughout the Caribbean: to
facilitate the full potential of the Caribbean hotel and tourism industry
by serving member needs and building partnerships in a socially
responsible and sustainable manner.
But as the region enjoys positive growth, helping members in their
efforts to continue the upward climb of bottom-line numbers becomes
more relevant than ever. And Lee and his new team have identified
plenty of means to that end.
Lee explained some of these plans at the Caribbean Travel
Marketplace, noting that the event is evolving. “In addition to the tradi-
tional conference, we will be adding seminars aimed at helping hotels
to supplement revenues by increasing direct bookings and yield man-
agement strategies.” He added, “Marketplace will become the confer-
ence to attend if you want to make more money.”
Additionally, CHTA will host the first Caribbean Hospitality Industry
Exchange Forum (CHIEF) in October in Puerto Rico. Education is the
focus of this event, which is also open to the hotel and tourism industry
at large. The agenda is packed with seminars offering ideas, information,
and best practices aimed at helping members to make and save money.
In partnership with HVS and CTO, CHTA
co-hosts the Caribbean Hotel Investment
Conference & Operations Summit (CHICOS),
also in Puerto Rico. Comito reports that atten-
dees will be the first to receive the just-pub-
lished
Caribbean Investment Guide
, filled with
information about the investment climate and
incentives that exist in the various jurisdictions
of the Caribbean.
Another tool that the CHTA team is focusing
on is the website, caribbeantravel.com,
cobranded with CTO. “The site is for consumers
who are looking for travel to the Caribbean to
link directly to the players — to our tourist
boards and hotel partners,” notes Cooper. “Our
goal is to turn the website into more than just a
top-of-the-funnel lead generator, but rather to
drive organic traffic and bookings over time. We
think that’s where the industry is going.”
Tireless Advocate
The association will, of course, continue to support its member base as
it always has — as a knowledge source, a change agent, a collaborator,
and a tireless champion of issues near and dear to the members:
Current topics are airline costs, passport requirements, visa liberation,
and taxes and duties, among others.
Part of paving the way for the healthiest financial future is building a
quality workforce. At a recent event in St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., Comito
shared that in order to develop homegrown leadership, “We’ve got to
invest in education, training, scholarships, and development.” The
Caribbean Hotels & Tourism Association Education Foundation has
been active since 1987, having awarded nearly US$2 million in scholar-
ships to Caribbean recipients. This cause is supported by a significant
number of Interval International–affiliated resorts in the region. “I don’t
think you can underscore enough the impact this has had on the
investment of our people,” says Comito.
As Lee and the new team reflect on the challenges ahead, the out-
look for tourism is bright in the Caribbean. More than 26.3 million visited
the region in 2014 — nearly 1.3 million more than 2013, also a record
year. And visitors spent more than US$29.2 billion in 2014, almost a
billion more than 2013.
Says Lee, “We are taking bold steps to lead the region’s hospitality
industry into the future. Through the efforts of our volunteer leadership
and our new executive team, we have created a strategic vision for the
association that outlines key issues that face our industry and solutions
to resolve these problems. Our efforts are undertaken for the benefit of
our entire membership so that together we prosper as a region.”
See page 2 for currency conversions.
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New Focus
VANESSA LEDESMA-BERRIOS, FRANK COMITO, EMIL LEE, AND MATT COOPER