She works in New York and is the chairwoman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Foundation that supports the development of human resources for the sake of the region’s travel and tourism industry. She’s also an expert in strategic marketing in the Wedding & Honeymoon segment and has been recognized as one of the world’s fifty best-trained people in that particular field. For her dedication to the promotion of the Caribbean as a travel destination around the world, she was presented with the Outstanding Service Award. She’s also a recipient of the NOAH Award that honors role models and mentors in the field of tourism.

What are the main objectives you pursue from your position within CTO? CTO’s primary function in New York is to build up awareness among all members and make sure the North American market keeps its position as the main income source for the region. As allied members, our function is to help make this happen through actions and programs that contribute to meeting those goals. Now that the Caribbean has strengthened as a sun-and-sand destination, what other products can be added to the wedding & honeymoon sector, based on your expertise in this field? The Caribbean, with its proximity to its main outbound market, provides the best opportunity for tired travelers, or for couples that seek to rekindle their love or just renew their vows. For the Wedding & Honeymoon sector, the region has the very best to offer in every way: beaches, warmth, pulse-accelerating music, trained planners, fancy hotels and hospitable people. What is CTO’s policy as far as weddings and honeymoons are concerned and how do you think this segment could further develop in the Caribbean? Overall, the Caribbean has the lion’s share of that market, but competition is tough all around the world. You need to carry through serious investment oriented to the public. I’ve always believed that if you have a product or a property and you don’t promote it, you wind up like a boy who winks at a girl in the dark: he’s the only one who knows he’s winking. Even though diversity and complementariness are among the Caribbean’s strengths, in the realm of world fairs and tradeshows there are still clear-cut divides among English-, Spanish- and French-speaking nations. What do you make of that? I can’t agree more with that and with the need for collaboration among all. We’re trying to work this out by means of educational programs and scholarships –the CTO Foundation grants education to Caribbean nationals in the field of tourism and language learning. This is a top priority for CTO to achieve total integration of the destinations and I’m pleased to remind readers that Fernando Abreu, our marketing deputy director in New York, is a man of Spanish origin who speaks that language perfectly well. Over the past 14 years, the Excelencias Group has worked diligently in the promotion of Latin America and the Caribbean in the world. Its flagship publication, the Caribbean Tourist Excellences magazine, is now reaching its 100th issue. What do you think of this publication and of its longstanding efforts as a platform for the international promotion of the region’s travel and tourism? What you’re doing to promote the Caribbean as only one region is amazing. So, I’m very pleased to congratulate you once again –I’d done it before- on a job well done in the promotion of our destinations around the world. I respect the wedding market, so I’d like to remind your readers from the tourism industry that this is a topic that requires all the attention and support it can possibly get because it’s no doubt one of the most lucrative and revenue-generating features for those hotels and destinations that work on it.