NTA President Lisa Simon was elected to the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Tourism Organization last week at the CTO’s annual State of the Industry Conference in Basseterre, St. Kitts. As a member of the CTO board, Simon will help guide the organization’s efforts to develop policies for increasing tourism to its more than 30 member-nations. NTA formed a strategic partnership with CTO last year to cross-promote and provide resources to the members of each organization.

The CTO board of directors and the council of ministers and commissioners of tourism approved the vision at their meetings in St. Kitts last week. This new vision is one of the outcomes of a review of the organization conducted recently by the corporate strategy consulting group, McKinney Rogers.

Should Jamaica build a museum to honor sporting heroes like Usain Bolt? Or should Dominica hold an annual “Nature Island Games” to draw visitors to its forested hills? These were some of the ideas put forth by some of the Caribbean tourism industry’s newest visionaries Wednesday.

The United States Virgin Islands has been elected as chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization with Commissioner of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty’s election at the CTO’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday. Nicholson-Doty, who was elected unopposed, will replace Ricky Skerritt as chairman of the CTO Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism. The vote was in keeping with the CTO constitution which mandates that elections must be held every two years.

As St. Kitts and Nevis prepares to host the 12th Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) State of the Industry Conference, flags of the member states have been mounted on the new light poles along the Kim Collins Highway. Scores of tourism industry stakeholders have begun to arrive for the conference.

The St. Kitts Tourism Authority and the Government of St. Kitts & Nevis invite all tourism stakeholders to this year’s CTO State of the Industry Conference to be held on 10th -12th October 2012, at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort & Casino, featuring public and private sector tourism executives.