“It is with great humility that I accept this vote of confidence in me and in the US Virgin Islands from the CTO Council of Ministers and Commissioners of Tourism. I look forward to continuing the hard work of outgoing chairman Senator Richard Skerritt of St. Kitts and Nevis and collaborating with each of the Caribbean’s nations and territories to advance marketing, product and human development efforts through coordinated regional approaches. We must continue to plan strategically and act collectively across the public and private sectors and at the community level to ensure the continued dynamism and strengthened resilience of our Caribbean tourism product.” – Beverly Nicholson-Doty, Chairman, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)/ Commissioner of Tourism, United States Virgin Islands

“I felt it was critical that we rebuild the confidence of our members in CTO as the regional tourism policy leader, and change the organization to be more effective in finding solutions than it has ever been. And we knew we needed to do things differently in order to get better results, so we brought in McKinney Rogers, a top international business consulting firm, to analyze our operations, help us more thoroughly understand the shifting marketplace, and become better positioned to service the needs and expectations of our diverse membership.” – Senator Richard Skerritt, Past Chairman, Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO)/ Minister of Tourism and International Transport, St. Kitts and Nevis

“This (new CTO) vision helps us focus on achieving our very important objective within a realistic timeline while continuing to provide strategic leadership in tourism.” – Hugh Riley, Secretary General, Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)

“We wholeheartedly support pronouncements made by regional leaders this week to promote the diversity of the region under one brand.” – Jose Salvador Icaza, Director of Membership Development, Caribbean, Choice Hotels International

“American (Airlines) will not leave a void in those Caribbean destinations that are critically important to us and to our Caribbean partners. We are in deep negotiations with other airlines to augment our route system in the Caribbean and looking at adding capacity and service where it makes sense.” –  Art Torno, Vice President – Mexico, Caribbean and Latin America, American Airlines (Travel Weekly)

“We continue to erect the barriers to travel that we have inherited and we end up in a bureaucratic jungle trying to work our way through it, We have to introduce our visitors to the best of Jamaica. When the visitors come to the airport and especially when Jamaicans are coming home, they have to fill out forms and join long lines. We could make this much simpler by using technology.” – Josef Forstmayr, Former President, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (Jamaica Gleaner)

“There are many people who devalue journalism with the misguided notion that ‘anyone can write.’ That’s technically true, just as anyone can play baseball … but not anyone
can write well enough to a) be informative and b) so that others would pay to read it. And very few people can play baseball well enough to get paid for it. Working for free only bolsters the idea that journalists are not  professional. Your doctor doesn’t work for free. The guy who cleans out your septic tank doesn’t work for free. Neither should any journalist.” – Roger Witherspoon, Journalist, Author, Educator, and Public Relations specialist

“Quotable Caribbean” is compiled by Marketplace Excellence, a full-service, integrated marketing agency committed to  excellence in the fields of public relations, marketing and media coaching.