GHTA: ‘We’re in a good position’

“We’re in a good position.”

This observation was made by President of the Grenada Hotel and Tourism Association (GHTA), Leo Garbutt, as he responded to a query from a member of the Grenadian press about the criteria used to hire the new head of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA), Petra Roach.

News broke on Tuesday that the Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Tourism and Marketing Inc. resigned from her post to take up her new post at the GTA.

During the question-and-answer segment of a virtual post-cabinet briefing yesterday, Garbutt likened Roach’s appointment to having Kirani James on their Olympic team.

“When we were discussing the situation of the new CEO, I thought the sensible thing that was stated, is that we should concentrate on marketing the destination.”

He lamented that the promotion of tourism has never been high on the priority list in Grenada.

“What my feeling is that when it came down to the six candidates that we interviewed, there [were] two outstanding candidates. The last one we interviewed afterwards, when we were discussing, we said ... that’s the best one. And I’m delighted that she’s accepted and delighted that we’ve got someone who, in my opinion, if we were in the Olympics we’d have Kirani James on our team; she is amazing.

“Her background is amazing and she’s going to do a lot for Grenada, because she’s got passion... She is an amazing person. And I must say, I congratulate the Chairman on getting her to come to us. We’re in a good position.”

Chairman of the GTA, Barry Collymore, while responding to a member from the Grenadian press, said: “In terms of the interview, selection, criteria process, one of the things that we thought was very important to have a quick restart for Grenada was to have someone with international marketing network, someone who has been to the trade shows, who knows all the players, who can pick up the phone and call American Airlines, who can pick up the phone and call British Airways.

“...The important thing is not just that we restart tourism, but it is how we restarted. So that we thought that one of the main criteria was to have someone who could do that and lead to restart very quickly to get businesses open, to get people coming here as quickly as possible. So having an international marketing network was important as it relates to what I think it says about Grenada.”

He revealed that two Grenadians applied for the post, but none of them had an international marketing network.

Collymore queried why this question was still being posed in the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. “Are we still doing this? Is it that we want the best candidate or that we want somebody who is of a particular nationality? And are we still in a CSME-Caribbean type framework where insularity and parochialism and so on?

“I don’t think we’re still doing that. I mean, I think that we have moved beyond that within the Caribbean and I think that one of the things that the pandemic has taught us is that we need a closer Caribbean or a Caribbean more united, and we need to work together. Our competitor is not St. Lucia and St. Kitts and Barbados and so on, our competitors are Seychells which already has herd immunity because the population has been vaccinated.

“We didn’t have a Caribbean national hired before, but the person who’s hired now is a Caribbean national, but we should want the best person regardless.”

Collymore revealed that the new CEO will also lead a mentorship and training programme. He stressed that the current acting CEO is also a brilliant administrator, but is not an international marketer. (JH)