St. George’s, 17 October 2022

Chairman Randall Dolland and CEO Petra Roach of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) attended the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) 40th Caribbean Travel Marketplace in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Travel Marketplace, CHTA’s first in-person event since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, ran from October 4th to 5th 2022 and featured tour operators, media, travel agents, and trade partners from the US, Canada, Latin America, Caribbean, UK and Europe.

This year’s Travel Marketplace commenced with the Caribbean Travel Forum, a new event centered around the business of tourism. The Travel Forum also commemorated CHTA’s 60th anniversary with presentations of the 2022 CHIEF awards and the inaugural Destination Resilience Award, which was presented to Grenada Tourism Authority and Grenada Hotel & Tourism Association. The Destination Resilience Award recognized the destinations that used innovative, unique, and timely responses to the pandemic that led to their recovery while maintaining lives and livelihoods.

CEO Petra Roach, in commenting on the award, said “We are extremely proud that Grenada was recognized for our hard work and innovation in mitigating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. All our partners worked tirelessly, day and night, to maintain lives and livelihoods and ensure our destination’s recovery.”

CHTA’s Travel Marketplace is the Caribbean’s largest tourism marketing event, bringing together the buyers and sellers of the region’s tourism products. Over the 2-day marketplace, GTA held 40 one-on-one meetings with tour operators, travel advisors, media, airlines, and industry service providers including Classic Vacations, Conde Naste, American Airlines, JetBlue, Expedia Group, Caribbean Journal, Hotel Beds, The Lotus Group, British Airways Holidays, Air Canada Vacations, and ALG Vacations Corporation. “This year’s Travel Marketplace was an exceptional experience from start to finish. Our global travel partners remain committed to Pure Grenada, with many exciting initiatives coming on stream soon.”

The Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority, Randall Dolland said, “It was great to be back at CHTA Marketplace this year to meet with your industry partners. The GTA had a full schedule and our destination continues to trend in the right direction. Our numbers for the upcoming season are extremely strong and 2023 has the potential to surpass 2019, our benchmark year.”