 
          Business View Caribbean
        
        
          
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          “About ten years ago, the Caribbean Hotel Association
        
        
          changed its name to the Caribbean Hotel and Tour-
        
        
          ism Association, in recognition of the broad reach that
        
        
          tourism has on the economies of the Caribbean. Over
        
        
          the years, we’ve also established a few related orga-
        
        
          nizations and institutions, including the CHTA Educa-
        
        
          tion Foundation, which has awarded over $5 million
        
        
          worth of scholarships to the region’s residents and
        
        
          has played an integral part in human resource devel-
        
        
          opment. We also established a group called the Ca-
        
        
          ribbean Society of Hotel Association Executives, which
        
        
          is geared towards supporting the professional devel-
        
        
          opment and the coordination amongst the various
        
        
          national hotel association executives – information
        
        
          sharing, best practices, and strengthening the two-way
        
        
          links between the national hotel and tourism associa-
        
        
          tions and CHTA. We also had a spin-off organization
        
        
          called the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism
        
        
          in the late 1990s, which focuses primarily on encour-
        
        
          aging sustainable tourism practices. It’s the umbrella
        
        
          for energy efficiency projects that we’ve done, energy
        
        
          efficiency policies that we’ve advanced, best practices
        
        
          on environmental standards, and so on.”
        
        
          Can you elaborate on the Association’s advocacy re-
        
        
          sponsibilities and activities?
        
        
          “It’s an ongoing challenge to make sure that our poli-
        
        
          cies regionally, as well as in individual countries, are
        
        
          conducive to advancing the growth, development,
        
        
          AT A GLANCE
        
        
          WHO:
        
        
          The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Associa-
        
        
          tion
        
        
          WHAT:
        
        
          Serving and representing the hotel and
        
        
          tourism industry in the Caribbean region
        
        
          WHERE:
        
        
          Coral Gables, Florida, USA
        
        
          WEBSITE
        
        
          :