Awards Program Recognizes Caribbean’s Best Tourism Practices

THE CARIBBEAN (July 5, 2016) – The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association
(CHTA) has opened online nominations for the second annual CHIEF Awards and invites
members to “shine a spotlight on your success” by nominating tried and proven best practices by
Caribbean hotels and tourism-related businesses. This year, a fourth category has been added to
the program and members can enter their best practices in the following four categories:
Technology (new for 2016), Environmental Sustainability, Operations, and Sales & Marketing.

The application is available via http://chtachiefgallery.weebly.com/chief-awards.html and
entries must be received by July 15, 2016. The top three finalists in each category will be
recognized publicly and their best practices will be showcased within the industry and at the
Caribbean Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum (CHIEF), scheduled for Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2016
at El Conquistador Resort, A Waldorf Astoria Resort in Puerto Rico.

“There is a tremendous amount of expertise, ingenuity and talent within our industry. The
CHIEF Awards present an excellent opportunity to recognize companies and individuals for the
great work that they do, while affording our members with an opportunity to learn from one
another,” said Karolin Troubetzkoy, president of CHTA.

Any person or company can nominate any Caribbean-based person or company for one
of the CHIEF Awards, but all nominations will be vetted with the National Hotel and Tourism
Associations. Nominations can be submitted by any CHTA hotel operator, allied member,
National Hotel and Tourism Associations, Ministries and Departments of Tourism, travel
industry partners (i.e. OTAs, travel intermediaries, trade press, etc.), CHTA Strategic Partners
and Sponsors, and the general public.

All submissions must be entered in one of the four categories and will be judged on
approach taken, results achieved and application of approach as a best practice. Applications
should include visuals, videos, charts, graphs or anything that would support the nomination and
demonstrate successful results.

All nominations will be reviewed by a panel of judges representing top industry
professionals in their respective fields. The judging panel represents different countries and
geographic regions, as well as different professional backgrounds, including the private sector,
academic institutions, non-profit organizations and government, to reflect the multi-stakeholder
engagement in the travel and tourism sector.

Last year’s winners included Sandals Grand St. Lucian Spa & Beach Resort, St.
Lucia in the Business Operations category; The Somerset on Grace Bay, Turks and Caicos in
the Sales & Marketing category and Rosalie Bay Resort, Dominica for the Sustainable
Practices category.

CHIEF
CHIEF incorporates a variety of educational tracks lead by experts from many travel,
tourism and hospitality industry segments featuring roundtable panels with one-on-one
discussions in Technology, Operations, Environmental Sustainability and Sales & Marketing.
CHIEF is staged by CHTA in conjunction with host sponsors Interval International and
JetBlue Getaways, platinum sponsor TravelZoo, and gold sponsors AskMe Inc., Clear Channel
Airport Division, OBM International, SiteMinder and TSA Solutions.
For additional information about the CHIEF Awards, contact your National Hotel
Association or CHTA via events@caribbeanhotelandtourism.com or call 786-476-8618.