St. Lucia has been elected as Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization with Philip J. Pierre, Minister of Tourism for St. Lucia, elected at the 46th meeting of the CTO Board during CTC-29 recently held in the Bahamas. Pamela C. Richards, Commissioner of Tourism for the U.S. Virgin Islands and CTO Chairman for the past two years, turned the gavel over to Minister Pierre to conclude the Board of Directors meeting.

The CTO has announced the winners of its fourth annual Travel Writer of the Year and Travel Photographer of the Year awards at a lunch sponsored by Visa International as part of the card company’s ongoing commitment to support the Caribbean region. Freelance journalist Joe Yogerst won the North America Travel Writer of the Year award for various coverage of the Caribbean region including articles in National Geographic Traveler, Condé Nast Traveler, Modern Bride and San Diego Union Tribune Sunday Travel Section.

Secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, has made it known that he wants hoteliers and other tourism stakeholders to make quality service and excellence experience become their guiding principle. “The most important thing in this industry is the experience, it’s in the product, it involves everything you offer the guests,” he said last week during a keynote address at the 2006 Tourism Nutmeg Awards, which was held at the Grand Beach Convention Center in Grenada.

The CTO Foundation, the scholarship program of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), is this year granting a record amount in scholarships and grants. These assist Caribbean nationals pursue tourism/hospitality studies, as well as those seeking to gain proficiency in a second language.

The recipient of this year´s highest honor from the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the CTO Lifetime Achievement Award, used her acceptance speech to make an impassioned plea for a regional campaign to promote the Caribbean as a single tourist destination. Dame Billie Miller, the Barbados foreign affairs and foreign trade minister, told an audience of over 700 persons gathered at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York for the CTO´s Governments of the Caribbean State Ball, that a joint campaign involving the public and private sectors is critical if the tourism sector is to become more competitive.

Dame Billie Antoinette Miller´s 30 year contribution to the Caribbean as a senior public servant will be recognized at the Caribbean Tourism Organization´s (CTO) 33rd Annual Governments of the Caribbean State Ball through the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award, CTO´s most esteemed honor, on June 16 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. “Dame Billie Miller´s contribution and dedication to tourism has positively affected both her home country of Barbados and the entire Caribbean region,” said Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, secretary general of CTO. “Her commitment is truly honorable and we are pleased to present her with this prestigious award,” he added.