Our One Caribbean Family, CHTA and CTO, is deeply saddened by the loss of Bonita Morgan, CTO’s Director of Resource Mobilization and Development, the morning of Friday April 6th in the United States where she was undergoing treatment for cancer. Our most heartfelt condolences go out to her family and the CTO team. Her legacy firmly rooted in her passion for the Caribbean will live on.
Bonita, who had been with the CTO since April 1996, was a consummate professional who had a profoundly positive impact on those with whom she worked or interacted, and touched hearts in the most fundamental ways.
Her calm and comforting demeanour, her penchant for providing a listening ear, her respect for colleagues, her welcoming embrace, and her selflessness were exemplary. A hard-working, dedicated and committed member of the CTO family, Bonita had a great passion for the development of Caribbean youth and world class service, and she dedicated the best part of her working life to helping release the potential of Caribbean people through education, training and professional development.
She introduced many impactful projects and programmes during her tenure at the CTO, including the development of harmonized curricula for the associate degree tourism/hospitality programme across the region, tourism education materials for primary and secondary schools, showcasing careers in tourism through a variety of media, organizing an annual tourism youth congress and biennial tourism human resources conference, and being the driving force behind the CTO Foundation – the programme which provides scholarships and grants to Caribbean nationals pursuing post-secondary studies in tourism, hospitality and language training, and which she administered from its inception in 1997.
Throughout her battle with cancer, Bonita displayed her characteristic determination and bravery.
Never was her spirit crushed, her will weakened or her resolved shattered. She faced the challenge without a complaint and with an upbeat attitude. But that was Bonita through and through – always positive, always believing.
Her passing is a tremendous loss, not just to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, but to the entire Caribbean region, and we all will miss her perspective, knowledge and her deep understanding of tourism and human capital development.