CTO Kicks Off Campaign for New Secretary General

THE ORGANIZATION:

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) is regarded as one of the world’s leading tourism organizations over the past two decades. Based in Bridgetown, Barbados, with offices in New York and London, the organization represents the tourism interests of 33 Member states primarily in those areas where it is clear that cooperation and collaboration will yield better individual benefits than any member acting alone.

A recent restructuring of CTO’s constitution calls for the Council of Ministers & Commissioners to focus principally on policy making issues and for the subordinate Board of Directors to be comprised of Directors of Tourism or their equivalent from member states. These policy making issues range from marketing to sustainable development, to representing the interests of the Caribbean, to international institutions and governments whose policies affect tourism growth and development. The organization has also enshrined in its new constitution a greater opportunity for the diversity of the Caribbean to be expressed in all of its activities through a reconstituted Executive Committee. A clear and enduring strength of the organization rests in its capacity to provide overreaching research information on the Caribbean to aid its members in decision-making and in the establishment of policies.

The organization has also established recently the Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC) which is jointly and equally owned by CTO’s private sector partner, the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA). CTDC is seen as the marketing company for the Caribbean, owns the Caribbean logo, and was born out of the recognition that marketing and promotion need to be much more nimble and flexible relative to the development side of tourism which focuses on the medium and long term. It is intended that CTDC will have its own Chief Operating Officer but the Secretary General & CEO of CTO sits, ex officio as a member of the Board of Directors of CTDC.

More information on CTO may be found at http://www.onecaribbean.org/

THE POSITION:

The role of the Secretary General continues to evolve as technologies and in particular, information and communications technologies, have transformed the tourism landscape and member states look to the organization for guidance in these areas of development. It affects all departments of the organization from marketing to sustainable development management to information management, to research and training. So the successful candidate must have demonstrated management of such diverse departments as well as familiarity with the technologies affecting all branches of the tourism sector although not required to be an expert in every area.

Beyond that, the successful candidate will be the principle spokesperson for Caribbean tourism in regional and international forums and will be called upon to lead the organization in the quest for and management of funds from international organizations that might be involved in the disbursement of development funds.

In many of its initiatives, the organization will be allied with its private sector partners in developing and executing programs; so any demonstrated skills in managing such relationships will be valuable. Most of the work of the CTO is conducted in English but it is a multilingual organization, so a second or more languages would also be a valuable asset.

The position reports to the Chairman of the Executive Committee on a day to day basis, but is officially engaged by the Council of Ministers & Commissioners.
There is considerable travel involved in this position, which is based at the CTO headquarters in Barbados.

APPLICATIONS:

All applicants must submit their curriculum vita with a listing of references to:

The Selection Committee

Caribbean Tourism Organization

One Financial Place

Collymore Rock, St. Michael

Barbados, West Indies

The deadline for applications is February 6, 2009