From Turks & Caicos Weekly News

Officials from the TCI hotel and tourism association (TCHTA) officials are back on island after attending the revamped Caribbean Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum held by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

The forum which has been inactive for over two decades took place last week in Puerto Rico and was attended by over 200 stakeholders from around the Caribbean and the USA and featured enlightening panel discussions with some of the most educated and experienced hoteliers and tourism officials in the region, a TCHTA release read.

Among speakers of the event were Nathan Lump of Travel and Leisure, Head of Industry Relations at Trip Advisor Brian Payea, CEO of Sandals Adams Stewart and President of the Sales and Marketing Association Nicola Madden-Gregg.

Day two of the forum featured live round-table discussions with major travel agencies and airline companies, as well as a trade show, presenting an opportunity for networking between attendees.

The panels enlightened tourism and hospitality officials on the future of hospitality, the travel sector from the consumer’s perspective, driving sales through social media and planning for profit.

Speaking on the forum’s re-introduction was CHTA’s President Emil Lee who noted: “The reason for CHIEF is critical. In the past it was a sales opportunity for allied members to get in front of our hotels and we’ve changed that and have made it more of an educational process.”

Lee continued: “Many of us have hotel operations and we’ve done some things that work well and some things that don’t work well. The hope is that we can facilitate the collection of information, repackage and redistribute it and so by sharing that, everyone can learn from others’ successes and failures.”

Also commenting on the success of the event was TCHTA’s Executive Director Stacy Cox who noted: “This is something that CHTA has been working on for the last year in an effort to educate the industry on new trends, there is so much to be taken away from this. With forums like this it allows for us not only to network but to share best practices. We gain a lot of information that we can take back to our prospective islands and implement them effectively.”

Cox also shared her thoughts on one of the biggest panels of the Forum…”Cuba: Opportunity or Threat?” noting “The biggest conversation for me was the threat of Cuba, because many individuals perceive it as such. Listening to the closing forum, it is a great opportunity for the region, for us now to deliver experiences as opposed to vacation, using Cuba’s cultural component as a best practice, implementing it into our own destinations.”

The third and final day of the Forum introduced an award platform in the categories of operations, sales and marketing category, sustainability category, and hotelier of the year, with TCHTA’s hotel member The Somerset taking home the award for “Best Sales and Marketing” and CEO of the Sandals Corp. Adam Stewart being awarded “2015 Hotelier of the Year.”

For more on this story go to: http://tcweeklynews.com/hotel-and-tourism-association-officials-attend-caribbean-hospitality-exchan-p6595-127.htm