by Brian Major
Last updated: 8:10 PM ET, Mon June 12, 2023
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has “identified” a
person who will become the group’s secretary general, its top executive, said
Kenneth Bryan, CTO’s chairman.
Speaking at a media briefing during CTO’s Caribbean Week conference,
Bryan said the appointment of a new leader after four years without an official
secretary general is part of “a re-shaping and re-formatting” of CTO.
“I’m happy to say a person has been identified,” said Bryan,
who nonetheless did not name the individual or say when he would begin serving
in the role.
“I will leave it to [CTO]’s HR people to make further
announcements as that is formulated,” Bryan said. The new secretary general “will
be the new face moving forward and help carry us forward into the future,”
Bryan said.
Neil Walters has served as CTO’s acting secretary general since
2019, when Hugh Riley, who had held the position since 2009, retired. “Neil has
been doing an amazing job over the past four and one-half years, but he’s
acting in that position,” Bryan said.
CTO launched a “revitalization” of the group in 2019, closing its New York and London offices in a move to “significantly
reduce [CTO’s] operational expenditures,” officials said at the time. CTO also
cancelled its State of the Tourism Industry conference the same year.
This year CTO has added Bermuda and the United States Virgin Islands as members countries. Bryan
said the group currently has 25 members and has “targeted” two other potential
member nations. He said his goal as chairman is to increase CTO’s membership.
“The role of the CTO is to develop ways of [creating] research,
knowledge and information,” Bryan said, “to advise its members on how best to
be effective in the tourism industry [and] market what we do as a region.”
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