CORAL GABLES, FLA.—The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Assn. (CHTA) will conduct its first hospitality and tourism conference since 2007 under the banner of the Caribbean Hospitality Industry Education Forum (CHIEF). According to CHTA, the event will include opportunities to learn how to adopt green sustainable development strategies to improve energy efficiency in every area of both hotel and tourism infrastructure. “The time is right to have a forum that brings together hoteliers and our allied members,” said Richard Doumeng, president of CHTA. “It will be an educational and sales setting with a strong focus on the use of technology to improve revenue, yield and efficiency.”
CHIEF will provide a crucial opportunity for hoteliers, hotel association executives and an array of hospitality product and service providers as well as industry experts to network, brainstorm and learn how to be a successful part of the future in the Caribbean tourism industry.
Trade Show Planned
“If you want to make more money or save money, you can’t afford not to attend,” said Emil Lee, president-elect of CHTA. CHIEF will consist of an education forum and a trade show. In addition to the focus on sustainability, it will provide the following:
• Opportunities for the industry to exchange best practices on marketing and operations;
• Opportunities for the hotels to learn how they can take advantage of free expertise to upgrade their operations and service levels;
• Opportunities for experts to provide leadership on the growing focus on digital marketing, social media, channel management and other 21st Century techniques;
• Opportunities for the Allied Membership to provide education that may benefit the hotels and tourist offices; and
• Opportunities for the Allied Membership to promote and sell products and services.
“The conference will bring together all interests impacting Caribbean hospitality and tourism,” said Doumeng. “This is also an opportunity for our allied members to get in front of our hoteliers in a more meaningful way. The non-hotel companies who represent the “T” in the name CHTA, deserve our support.”
“We expect that this conference will be especially good for independent hoteliers, operations managers and marketing managers, and all those small, boutique hotels that used to attend both the Small Hotels Retreat and CHIC (the Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference),” added Lee.
Emphasis on Best Practices
Subjects to be covered will include an overview of trends in technology, marketing and operations. Speakers from both within the Caribbean as well as those from other areas of the world will share best practices on running more efficient cost saving operations and new marketing trends that work in today’s competitive global marketplace.
A new trade show component will enable the growing allied interests to provide a one-stop venue for hoteliers to see the latest products, gadgets, green technology tools and services that have become available.
Details are being worked on now and CHTA is seeking input on topics and speakers to ensure that this new conference meets the needs of the growing and diverse CHTA membership. For more information, contact Vanessa Ledesma at CHTA headquarters at (305) 443-3040 or by email at vanessa@caribbeanhotelandtourism.com.
