Business View Caribbean | September 2019

24 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN SEPTEMBER 2019 we’ve spread the funds around and tried to have constructive impact. “We’re really heartened by how people in our industry in the Caribbean are so responsive to helping one another. There was some great leadership by our then president, Karolin Troubetzkoy, from St. Lucia and our current president, Patricia Affonso-Dass, from Barbados. By the way, they are the first two consecutive female presidents we’ve had in the history of our organization, so, we’re pleased about that. What we do depends on the support of the industry and the receptivity of governments. Some governments really understand the socio-economic value of our industry and work hard in partnership, and others could learn some lessons from them.” BVC: How does data drive your efforts and is CHTA working on any environmental sustainability initiatives? Comito: “We do some of our own primary data collection but most of the data we gather is secondary. The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) collects a lot of data on visitor arrivals to the region, so we draw on that. One of our strategic partners is STR (Smith Travel Research) and they are the top global company on measuring hotel performance and hotel developments throughout the world. We encourage our members to participate in the STR reporting programs and offer incentives for them to do that. We also do our own annual economic performance and outlook study in January. That gives us a reading on where the industry is at, what are the challenges, how it performed in terms of employment, capital expenditure spending, sales, and other barometers. We have several other data partners like the World Travel and Tourism Council and MasterCard who provide great insights on traveler behaviors and the industry’s impact. “On the environmental sustainability front, through our Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, we just offered a webinar for our members on use of plastics and the alternatives, and best practices on how some people are approaching it. It is in our knowledge center on our website for people