Nicola Madden-Greig, President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), appealed to Caribbean tourism leaders to chart their own course in the vital travel and tourism sector and not be swayed by external agendas.

Madden-Greig noted that while overall tourism activity in the Caribbean has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, with some destinations growing "by leaps and bounds," others remain in recovery mode, largely due to an imbalance in flight distribution and inadequate marketing resources.

In order for the region's tourism industry to fully and equitably recover, Madden-Greig said it was important for government leaders to frame policies and strategies to promote regular and predictable connectivity between islands.

The head of the region's leading private sector tourism organization pointed out that such a measure would not only encourage tourists to visit more islands but also help meet the needs of Caribbean residents traveling for family, business, and leisure activities. "We must support those airlines that are stepping up to strengthen our air links, but we must also embrace this crisis in air transportation as an opportunity for a local solution within our region," she commented.

Madden-Greig echoed the advice of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who urged tourism leaders in the region to shed post-colonial attitudes, take control of their tourism sectors, and be "shapers, not takers," during her opening speech at CHTA's successful Caribbean Travel Forum, which preceded the association's Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Barbados in May.

She also agreed with Prime Minister Mottley's call for better use of regional capital and urged lawmakers to design new financial instruments that could be used for the region's main source of income, tourism, instead of leaving them dormant in low-interest accounts.

Despite its inherent volatility, Madden-Greig described tourism as "the fastest-growing and most dynamic sector of the global economy" and added that the Caribbean "should not be helplessly tied to the fate of others. While international partnership has its value, regional collaboration is essential. The work is too important not to have independent regional solutions."

She commented, "We must continue to strengthen ties with our international partners, but we must also follow in the footsteps of entrepreneurs like Adam Stewart and Kevin Hendrickson in Jamaica, Peter Odle in Barbados, the Lamontagne family in St. Lucia, and the Hopkin family in Grenada, to name a few, and become architects of our own destiny." Tourism is the region's economic engine but can also be a vehicle for generational wealth creation for Caribbean people, she affirmed.

Madden-Greig, who is the Group Director of Marketing and Sales at The Courtleigh Hospitality Group in Jamaica, believes that as the tourism industry continues to grow, there must be a serious effort to implement pension plans for tourism workers throughout the region, especially given the volatility of the current job market. Announcing Jamaica's successful efforts to implement such a system, she reasoned that the well-being of tourism workers, who have been the foundation for building the region's largest income generator, must be a priority. "Many of our workers are retiring with little to no safety net, and it is time for us to seriously address this problem," she commented.