Members of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the region’s tourism development agency, on Tuesday night elected Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan as their chairman.
Bryan was elected unopposed as chairman of the CTO’s Council of Ministers at a meeting of the region’s tourism ministers at The Ritz-Carlton. The meeting was part of a five-day conference being held by the organisation in Cayman.
This is the first time a Cayman Islands minister has been elected to the role.
Also on Tuesday night, Cayman’s Director of Tourism Rosa Harris was elected as chair of the CTO’s Board of Directors.
Speaking to the Compass immediately after the meeting at which he was elected, Bryan said, “It is genuinely an honour to take up this role, to know that my colleagues within the region have that confidence in me.”
Bryan had disclosed last month in an interview on the Cayman Compass Facebook talk show The Resh Hour that he intended to put himself forward for nomination.
One of the aims of this week’s conference is to try to establish frameworks for better connectivity within the region. Towards that end, discussions were being carried out among member states and jurisdictions about sharing airlift and making routes more accessible, both between the various islands of the Caribbean and for travellers coming from farther afield who may want to visit more than one destination in the region in a single vacation.
“Post-COVID era, there’s a lot of work that all of our Caribbean islands have to do in our partnership as part of this organisation to ensure that our airlift, our marketing, our focus on emerging markets, our ability to run efficiently as an entity – all those things have to be worked on,” Bryan said. “And that’s basically the narrative that they want a new chairman to focus on, and I’m excited about it, committed to it.”
Dual roles
He said he believes his dual roles, as head of the regional organisation and as Cayman’s minister of tourism, can complement one another.
“I think there’s not only a benefit for the region, but remember, I’m still a minister of the Cayman Islands, so there’s much benefit for us,” he said. “The Cayman Islands has always been a leader in many other ways. This is just another way that I think Cayman can show its commitment to leadership and support for our region, like we always do, so I’m honoured to take the role.”
He added that, even with his new responsibilities, he can still ably represent the people in his constituency of George Town Central.
“I have to balance the role of being a regional leader for tourism, being a leader for tourism in the Cayman Islands, and also being a leader for my people in George Town Central, which is very important to me as well,” he said.
In addition, he believes his constituents “would want me to help the rest of the Caribbean region by getting us past COVID and getting the [tourist] numbers back up. So I’m committed to that.
“I think I can balance the two and I think the people of George Town Central have faith in me, to know that maybe it may take a little bit of time away from my normal duties, but it’s for the better good for longevity in tourism.”
The conference in Cayman this week brings together ministers and other tourism leaders for the first annual business meetings to be held in person since the pandemic began in early 2020. At these meetings, which are hosted each year by a member destination, CTO members discuss and plan key items.
During the conference, the International Air Transport Association will also host Caribbean Aviation Day on Wednesday, 14 Sept.
Updates given by attending members to the media this week indicate that there is strong post-pandemic recovery in the tourism industry throughout the region, with most islands reporting higher-than-anticipated traveller numbers and new accommodation developments that will expand stayover offerings.
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Well done Kenneth.