January 2017 | Business View Caribbean

50 51 caribbean hotel and tourismassociation affect its ability to drum up business. So a lot of its emphasis, in the early stages, was on marketing. But as time evolved, in the late ‘70s, ‘80s, and early ‘90s, its mission expanded into other areas, in particular: advocacy, research and information dissem- ination, workforce development, and overall product development. And that expanded mission continues to today. “About ten years ago, the Caribbean Hotel Association changed its name to the Carib- bean Hotel and Tourism Association, in rec- ognition of our diverse membership and the broad reach that tourism has on the econo- mies of the Caribbean. Over the years, we’ve also established a few related organizations 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 development. We also es- tablished a group called the Caribbean Soci- ety of Hotel Association Executives, which is geared towards supporting the professional development and the coordination amongst the various national hotel association exec- utives – information sharing, best practices, and strengthening the two-way links be- tween the national hotel and tourism asso- ciations and CHTA. We also had a spin-off organization called the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism in the late 1990s, which focuses primarily on encouraging sus- tainable tourism practices. It’s the umbrella FRANK COMITO for energy efficiency projects that we’ve done, energy efficiency policies that we’ve advanced, best practices on environmental standards, and a range of sustainable initiatives.” BVM: Can you elaborate on the Association’s advocacy responsibilities and activities? COMITO: “It’s an ongoing challenge to make sure that our policies regionally, as well as in individual countries, are conducive to advancing the growth, development, and profitability of the industry, and recognizing that it’s the prima- ry generator of employment and tax revenue for the region. That’s not necessarily fully ac- knowledged in practice by many governments in the region, and we’ve worked hard with our counterpart organization, the Caribbean Tour- ism Organization, which represents government interests in the tourism industry, to provide in- formation and facts about its economic impact. We’ve worked closely over the years with the World Travel and Tourism Council and groups like Oxford Economics to garner and support the development of the necessary research to show the broad economic impact of tourism in our various jurisdictions in the Caribbean.