As I settle back at my desk after a very productive and successful set of activities for and around Caribbean Travel Marketplace #42 in Montego Bay, Jamaica, this message provides an excellent opportunity to share with you – industry peer and a CHTA stakeholder – a few important points to ensure that you and the business you represent continues to thrive in this ever-changing environment.
If you missed CHTA’s webinar “Unlocking the Value of CHTA Membership” held on April 18th, we encourage you to add it to your playlist or to watch activities as it is a succinct overview of all the resources available to CHTA members to enhance your industry knowledge, identify solutions available for your needs (as a business owner or as a hospitality and tourism professional) and establish connections with an extensive network across our 32 member destinations of industry-minded professionals and insiders looking to share best practices and network.
During these first months of the year, we’ve resumed in-destination visits fostering stronger relationships and enhanced collaboration among members. These visits provide firsthand insights into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by each destination, facilitating tailored support giving CHTA important insights on how we can further support our members. Additionally, they allow for resource sharing and the exchange of best practices not only locally but regionally. I’ve had the opportunity to experience the warmth and embrace that characterizes our people and to connect with the ambassadors that every day make our industry stronger and the Caribbean the most desirable place to visit. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Grenada Hotel & Tourism Association and the Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association and their respective members for the invitations to address their membership and experience their destination offerings. As we continue to finalize details of member visits during the second half of the year, we will share details with members to facilitate more engagement and connectivity during these visits.
In addition to these visits, CHTA will have representation later this month at two important industry events – CTO’s Caribbean Week in New York and HITEC & the HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference (June 24 – 27) in Charlotte, North Carolina. As a reminder, CHTA members receive comp access to HITEC’s trade show (the largest hospitality technology trade show in North America) and heavily discounted registration for the HSMAI conference. There are limited spaces available for these two member offers – if you have not signed up yet, submit your application now . We hope to connect with you at one of these industry conferences.
I would like to extend our gratitude to our various partners whose invaluable contributions have significantly strengthened our ability to develop essential resources and tools for you, our members. With their support, we continue to build a stronger community that enhances the services we provide, provide, empowering our members to thrive in their respective fields. Our current partners include:
- Strategic Partners: Interval International, MarketplaceExcellence, Mastercard, Travelzoo and United States Virgin Islands
- Partners: welcoming our newest partner, Cable & Wireless
- Data Partners: ForwardKeys and STR
If you are interested in increasing your business exposure across our member activities and events, please reach out to Tenielle Guppy, CHTA’s Member and Partner Development Associate to receive more details on the partner opportunities available, including sponsorship at CHTA events.
To enhance and strengthen the CHTA community, it is imperative that each one of our members is engaged and informed of everything that we do to support you and the business you represent. If you or your team members have not updated your membership profile, I am asking for your immediate support in ensuring that your member record is updated. It is an easy process and once you’ve created or updated your profile, after a few minutes, you will be connected and able to be in-the-know of everything CHTA has to offer but as important, allowing you easy access to connecting with your peers across our membership network. Check out this quick tutorial that shows step-by-step how to update and/or create your member profile. If you need any assistance, please submit a request on this form for a CHTA team member to schedule a quick connect with you to set-up your profile.
Lastly, I invite you to visit our redesigned website – featuring our new branding – but as important, making navigation in our site more user-friendly and accessible. We invite you to bookmark the site so you can get easy access to information and updates on CHTA programs, activities and resources, including the notification of the dates for CHIEF and the long-awaited return of Taste of the Caribbean both scheduled for Miami towards the end of the year.
I look forward to your continued engagement in CHTA and remind you that I and the CHTA team are always available to you! Thank you for your support!