Arley Sobers, Caribbean Tourism Executive, Died

Arley Sobers, interim secretary general and director of information management and research of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, died Aug. 14 in New York City. Sobers, 65, died while in New York on a CTO business-related visit.

He was named CTO’s interim secretary general on July 3, when Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace stepped down from the post to become minister of tourism for the Bahamas.

Allen Chastanet, CTO chairman, described Sobers as a “hard-working, dedicated and committed member of the CTO family, selflessly giving more than 20 years of his life to the organization. His passion for research and information management was unparalleled and his work on the development of an information management system for tourism in the Caribbean was revolutionary at the time. His passing is a tremendous loss, not just to CTO but to the entire Caribbean region.”

Vanderpool-Wallace said that Sobers “helped to establish and solidify CTO’s global reputation as a source of information on the Caribbean. Few people are irreplaceable but Arley comes as close as any.”

Sobers, who lived in Barbados, served as CTO’s interim secretary general two times, filling the vacancy left when Jean Holder stepped down from the post in 2005 and again this year when Vanderpool-Wallace left.