Eleuthera, Bahamas wins CHTA Destination Resilience Category B Award. L-R: Nicola Madden-Greig President of The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association; Latia Duncombe, Director General, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation and Vanessa Ledesma Acting CEO & Director General of The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association.
This week, delegates from The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation (BMOTIA), led by Director General Mrs. Latia Duncombe, attended the 41st edition of Caribbean Travel Marketplace, the Caribbean’s largest tourism marketing event.
The meeting was hosted by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) in Bridgetown, Barbados May 9-11.
The Hon. Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, opened the conference on Tuesday, 9 May addressing over 700 representatives inclusive of Tourism Ministers, executives, tour operators, suppliers and more. Keynote addresses continued highlighting the state of the industry by Nicola Madden-Greig, President of CHTA, Olivier Ponti, Vice President of Insights for ForwardKeys; the Hon. Kenneth Bryan, Tourism Minister for the Cayman Islands and Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO); Charlie Osmond, Co-founder, Triptease.
CHTA 2023 Destination Resilience Awards were also announced on Tuesday, with Eleuthera Island in The Bahamas being named as the winner in Category B – destinations with total stopover arrivals under 500,000. The Destination Resilience Awards were introduced during the Covid -19 pandemic and recognises destinations that used innovative and timely responses to the global pandemic that led to the island’s tourism recovery. Eleuthera demonstrated a commitment to a more sustainable future with initiatives undertaken by entities such as the Island School, Cape Eleuthera Institute, the Eleuthera Sustainability Council Cooperative Society and the Centre for Training Institute.
“I am pleased to see the efforts to promote sustainability in The Bahamas and notably Eleuthera, recognised by the Caribbean community and rewarded with the Destination Resilience Award,” said Latia Duncombe, Director General, BMOTIA.
BMOTIA representatives participated in over 40 meetings with prospective priority partners and media outlets to discuss new developments and the future of travel to The Bahamas.
“There’s been a keen interest in our destination from European and Latin American representatives,” said Duncombe, “Our meetings with them have given way to new and strengthened strategic partnerships.”
Said Duncombe, “CHTA Marketplace has presented an unparalleled opportunity to engage in insightful discussions on the optimal use of Artificial Intelligence in capitalising on travel consumer behaviours. Such intelligence is invaluable to our overarching promotional strategy.”
“We continuously see the value of the destination’s attendance at Caribbean Travel Marketplace,” she added.
For more information on recent BMOTIA tourism efforts, please visit www.bahamas.com.
