US Virgin Islands Hotel & Tourism Association
CHTA Focuses on Caribbean Unity, Innovation as Key Industry Forum Nears
The fourth annual Caribbean Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum, the premier educational forum for Caribbean hospitality and tourism professionals, is slated for June 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency in Miami.
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association announced that plans are set for the top regional gathering where unity and innovation will be examined as central factors to fuel the growth of the region’s bread and butter industry.
CHTA President Karolin Troubetzkoy said after a challenging close to 2017 following the impact of September’s hurricanes, it was important for industry stakeholders to get together and share ideas to stimulate the growth of the hospitality sector for the remainder of 2018 and beyond.
“As we meet under the theme of ‘Unite and Innovate,’ delegates will learn from each other, break the molds and set a new normal for the industry,” she asserted, adding, “you really need to be there to connect with people and ideas which simply can help you to improve your bottom line while innovating and contributing to the competitiveness of the region’s leading economic sector.”
CHIEF is a critical educational platform for regional hoteliers, industry professionals and allied partners where best practices are shared. “Professional development and connectivity with peers continues to be the number one reason why our members attend CHIEF,” said Troubetzkoy, who looks forward to benefiting from and contributing to the various sessions during the summer conference.
Three educational tracks will cover a multitude of relevant hospitality and tourism topics, ranging from operations to sales and marketing, the sharing economy and sustainability. Professional development training and a vibrant speed networking session will return this year.
In a rapidly changing economic climate, and especially after the afflictions of last year’s storms, “this is the event to attend if you want to take on the issues affecting your business right now,” said CHTA CEO Frank Comito. He expanded on the theme by pointing out CHIEF was designed to allow participants to “unite with fellow hoteliers, innovative vendors, government officials and industry experts and to create new possibilities for a stronger, more sustainable and more profitable industry.”
By encouraging hotel owners, vendors, managers, associations and agencies from more than two dozen Caribbean countries and territories to unite under one roof for a weekend in June, Comito expects “a stimulating generation of innovation and creativity, which will fuel our sector for the exciting time ahead.”
CHIEF will also feature Taste of the Caribbean, where the region’s best chefs and their teams from around the region will compete for culinary awards. Taste of the Caribbean also provides educational opportunities for food and beverage participants, who learn the latest trends and techniques emerging from their industry.
Also returning to Miami this year will be CHTA’s Caribbean305 event, where flavors from more than a dozen Caribbean nations will be simmering at the culinary and cultural celebration taking place on Miami’s Jungle Island on June 23 at 8 p.m.
For further information, visit www.chtachief.com. Click here to view a powerpoint from CHTA about the event.
CHIEF 2018 General Session – Weathering the Storm
This session is for you! 2017’s hurricane season brought home the critical need for Caribbean hospitality and tourism businesses to have a proactive communications strategy to offset the impact of negative publicity. Learn how to have a plan in place to keep your business in the black during a crisis.
CHTA Earth Day Message from President Karolin Troubetzkoy
This Earth Day, April 22, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association joined the worldwide celebrations.
Earth Day’s theme this year, “End Plastic Pollution,” is especially relevant for CHTA because preventing or removing plastic pollution remains a big challenge for many of our tourism enterprises and, in fact, for many of our island destinations at large.
We recently saw the “plasticberg” of garbage that drifted into parts of our pristine Caribbean Sea, underscoring the plastic pollution that already spoils some of our beaches. So, it is even more urgent that we come together in a smart partnership with all sectors and communities to clean out the plastic pollution and ensure clean and pristine waters dominate the million square miles that comprise the Caribbean.
The Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), CHTA’s nonprofit affiliate, continues to offer tourism enterprises and communities sustainability resources and share best practices to end the irresponsible dumping of plastics across the Caribbean.
On the occasion of Earth Day, CHTA is pleased to announce the planned introduction of a new section in the CHTA website’s Knowledge Center, dedicated to research, best practices and practical information to help guide hoteliers, their employees and guests in better understanding how they can help reduce the harmful effects from the proliferation of plastics.
As Earth Day organizers note, the alarming growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of not only our beautiful Caribbean, but also our planet as we know it, with effects ranging from poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, and from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our waste streams and landfills in the constrained space of our islands.
This Earth Day, we encourage our members to dedicate themselves to generating the inspiration and information needed to fundamentally change human attitudes and behaviors about plastics and motivate their team members, their families and communities to take personal responsibility for the plastic pollution that each one of us generates by choosing to reject or reduce plastics and to reuse and recycle where possible.
CHTA salutes its tourism enterprises that have successfully reduced the use of plastic in their operations, with creative alternatives to plastics for food containers, cutlery, cups and straws and the introduction of reusable water bottles. We also salute the destinations that have already begun to ban plastic checkout bags for groceries or other merchandise. By sharing these successes, we hope to encourage and inspire more business to find plastic-free solutions.
To be successful, we need a Caribbean strategy that can fit into the Earth Day Network’s global framework to regulate such pollution, in particular in our tourism and hospitality sectors. Let’s encourage our governments, our hotels and tourism businesses to be leaders in keeping plastics out of our seas, and also engage with the cruise and airline industries to eliminate plastic waste.
Together, we can exhort universities, schools, school teachers and students to end plastic pollution throughout our islands.
Our fourth annual Caribbean Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum, the premier educational forum for Caribbean hospitality and tourism professionals (from June 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency in Miami) will be an excellent forum to take this discussion to another level.
CHTA and CAST support the Earth Day Network’s mission to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.
Click here for action steps and tools you can use to take action to end plastic pollution on Earth Day and beyond.
Four Ways Being Green Will Keep Your Hotel in the Black
Hospitality and tourism businesses in the Caribbean are heavily dependent on their environments to attract guests to their properties, and being that the Caribbean is the most tourism dependent region in the world, running your business with a minimal carbon footprint not only benefits the environment but the economy of your region and your bottom line. Click here to learn four tasks that all hotels (big and small) can carry out to save money and do their part to save the environment.