Basseterre, St. Kitts (23rd May 2017) – The St. Kitts and Nevis Hotel and Tourism Association would like to congratulate one of our members, Ocean Terrace Inn who is among the nine properties in the Caribbean that are finalists in the Environmental Sustainability category under the *CHIEF Awards. OTI has consciously recognised that they have a responsibility not only to the environment but to their guests to implement sustainable practices that will enable them to operate in a way that supports and utilizes vulnerable resources that are often taken for granted.
As 2017 is being recognized as ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’ declared by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to provide greater awareness of the importance of tourism and the relationship of the industry’s activities and climate change. With various Governments, international and regional agencies and other stakeholders already engaged in best practices for the industry the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) is among those agencies that have recognised that their members are currently applying sustainable actions that reduce their carbon foot print and the CHTA is honouring these members at the 2017 CHIEF Awards under the Environmental Sustainability category and will be recognized during the Opening Session on Friday, June 2nd at the Hyatt Regency Miami.
Additionally, the OTI was nominated in two categories namely Sustainable Tourism Award and Achievement of Excellence and went on to win the Achievement of Excellence award at the recently held St.Kitts Tourism Awards to further acknowledge the property’s methods to support responsible tourism.
The President of the SKNHTA, Miss Johan Kelly stated, “Chris we are very proud to hear of this nomination and all the others for the Tourism Awards. I do think sustainability is the way forward and I think it is an amazing reflection on companies that implement sustainable practices all throughout their organizations. Congratulations!”
Chris Ghita, General Manager for OTI in recognition of the nomination would like to see other hotels and the public sector in the federation understand the need to adapt sustainable programmes for their entities. “Leadership by inclusion, training, couching mentoring and exposure for our employees in this beautiful industry is our main drive, we continue to partner with local institutions to heighten the importance of environmental best practices, destination sustainability and true authenticity of our product and services.”
The HTA would like to take this opportunity to encourage those companies that are direct and indirectly involved in our tourism industry not only to be responsible but to incorporate more sustainable practices in order to be competitive on a regional and international scale. To find out more about how you can incorporate sustainable practices please click on the links below:
http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/DTIx0592xPA-TourismPolicyEN.pdf
http://www2.unwto.org/
*CHIEF is the premier educational forum for Caribbean hospitality and tourism professionals. CHIEF is where the hospitality industry comes to connect, learn best practices, share ideas, brainstorm creative solutions to current challenges and build relationships.
With three educational tracks covering a multitude of relevant topics, from the sharing economy to sustainability, and interactive round table and speed networking sessions, this is the event to attend if you want to take on the issues affecting your business right now. Get together with fellow hoteliers, innovative vendors, government officials and industry experts to lead the way for a stronger, more sustainable and more profitable industry.
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