CONPEHT has a new leadership
Delegates at the 12th Congress of the Pan American Hotel, Gourmet and Tourism Conference (CONPEHT) held in Havana, picked Maria de Lourdes Jarrin from Ecuador as its new chairwoman to replace Mexico’s Rafael Gutierrez.
The new CONPEHT leadership is made up of co-chairmen Arturo Sierra for Mexico and the U.S., Guatemala’s Zobeida Kliss for Central America; Argentina’s Maria Vandam to represent South America, and Cuba’s Caridad Alcebo for the Caribbean region.
Chairwoman-elect Maria de Lourdes Jarrin is determined to strengthen the work conducted by her predecessors, especially by outgoing chairman Rafael Gutierrez Niebla from Mexico.
“We intend in the future to turn ourselves into guides, not only of the hemisphere’s tourism education, but also of the tourist policies that must prevail in our countries, given the globalization framework we are in right now and the tremendous potentials shown by the different regions that make up this subcontinent.”
The elections of Mrs. Jarrin took place during the General Assembly of CONPEHT members at the conclave’s fourth and closing session last Friday Sept. 13, attended by over 500 delegates –professionals and students alike from more than a dozen States.
Caridad Alcebo, the co-chairwoman-elect for Cuba who presided over the congress’ organizing committee, said to be pleased with what she called “highly satisfactory outcomes of the meeting as far as technical, teaching and professional organization was concerned.”
Other elements that helped make this congress a success –she said- were the masterful lectures dictated by internationally renowned professionals and by Eusebio Leal, Havana’s Historian, that –in her own words- gave the congress a distinction touch. There was also an array of related activities that ranged from a grand tour around the capital´s colonial section to a concert performed by the National Symphonic Orchestra.
The last sessions were reserved for the so-called CONPEHT Exchange in which each and every member chose up to fifteen entries of enlistment in other schools to send students or professors for apprenticeships. At the same time, the Pan American Conference signed a letter of intention with the Madre Maestra Pontifical University in the Dominican Republic, a step that mirrors the willingness to foster mutual cooperation.
The next congress will take place in Colombia in the year 2004, while Spain proposed to host the following edition.
As tradition has it in Havana, the congress came to a close with a big bash at the National Hotel, the standard-bearing establishment in the Cuban capital.
