Our mission is to optimize the full potential of the Caribbean hotel & tourism industry by serving member needs and building partnerships.

Membership, Diversity & Representation
The members of CHA represent the entire spectrum of the hospitality industry’s private sector. Some 849 member hotels in 36 national hotel associations represent approximately 125,476 rooms in the Caribbean, from the small guest houses to the mega-resorts.

The allied members: airlines, tour wholesalers and travel agents, trade and consumer press, advertising and public relations agencies, and hotel and restaurants suppliers, among many, account for more than 536 members. Altogether, they are the hospitality industry of the Caribbean, and CHA is their voice.

Organization
CHA is chartered as a not-for-profit limited liability corporation registered in the Cayman Islands.

CHA is headquartered in Miami, Florida and has a project office in Barbados.  

The Association is governed by a board of directors elected by the member national hotel associations, according to their size. Two directors are elected to represent airlines, five to represent other allied members, one to represent chain hotels, and one each to represent the Caribbean Society of Association Executives (CSHAE), the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC), the Caribbean Council (CC), and the Caribbean-Central American Action (C-CAA). The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) appoints three representatives to the CHA board.

CHA in History
The Caribbean Hotel Association celebrated in 2007 its 45th anniversary as the body that brings together the members of the Caribbean hospitality industry to address a broad range of issues that are common to them. Over four decades, CHA has metamorphosed from a straight trade association to a developmental agency for the region’s tourism private sector.

CHA first began in 1959 as a committee of the Caribbean Tourist Association - a public/private sector organization created to promote and market the region - in response to a specific hotel lobby. In 1962, CHA became an autonomous body. CHA was very much market-focused during its genesis - airlines controlled access, wholesalers controlled traffic and payments, and hotel reps controlled communications with travel agents, while the hotels themselves were not protected. Our main concern back them was for the hotel sector to regain some measure of control and address these issues as one,” he added.

The understanding that the industry must join forces to be more effective led CHA to the development over the years of a number of programs. Among them:

• Caribbean Marketplace is recognized as the most important tourism-marketing event of the year for the Caribbean region.
• A database on regional accommodation was developed, the Caribbean Gold Book - now CaribbeanTravel.com - The Magazine.  Today, this publication is the travel agents’ most comprehensive reference source to the lodging industry in the region.
  • CHARMS, the Caribbean Hotel Association Reservations Marketing Service, was created to provide CHA hotels with a global distribution. 

CHA was helping to direct the course of the industry’s development...

The Development of the Caribbean Product
By the early 1990’s, while marketing still was – and remains to this day – a top priority, there was new concern for product development. “With so many destinations aggressively seeking a slice of the international tourism pie, the Caribbean could no longer rely on its beauty and climate alone,” said John Bell, CHA's first executive officer. “We had to become more professional.” In response, CHA developed a host of programs: the Caribbean Culinary Federation (CCF) for culinary development, the Caribbean Hospitality Training Institute (CHTI), training and education; the Caribbean Tourism Credentialing Program (CTCP), certification and credentialing; the Caribbean Hotel Foundation, scholarships and grants; and the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), for environmental management - among many others - all geared to help Caribbean hoteliers increase the quality of their product and their competitiveness. “Quality and value are the keys to success - and product development is how we deliver,” became the new implicit motto.

As a result of the complete range of initiatives, CHA has become over time the recognized representative of the Caribbean hospitality industry, as well as THE private sector developmental partner by international agencies active in the region, such as the European Union, the InterAmerican Development Bank, the Organization of American States, and the United States Agency for International Development.

Public / Private Sector Collaboration
In September 2005, CHA and the Caribbean Tourism Organization signed a historic agreement in which the two organizations pledged “full cooperation and collaboration between the public and private sectors of the Caribbean tourism industry in order for tourism development to proceed in a coherent, effective and efficient manner.”

This milestone followed a number of years in which both organizations walked similar, but disparate paths in promoting the region.  “We already collaborate in a number of specific areas and already exchange directors on each other’s boards but we have stopped short of establishing a process under which our collaboration is pervasive and permanent,” said a statement written by both organizations.

Fifteen months later, CHA and CTO launched the Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC), a private, for profit entity registered in the Cayman Islands and designed to generate marketing to further support the promotion of the region.  The new entity is jointly owned and operated by CTO and CHA.  The goals of the new company are:

• To promote and protect of the Caribbean brand;
• To promote and protect the interests of the owners;
• To create synergies which might not otherwise go to the partners;
• To generate revenues for the benefit of the Caribbean people.
  

The Way Forward
CHA recognizes that there is much work to be done. There have been outstanding critical issues which must be resolved in order to turn around the industry and maximize benefits. Among them are safety and security; tourism and taxation; environmental protection; linkages with other sectors, and investment. To address these, the private and public sectors are intent on working together. 
 
As a result, the third phase in CHA’s evolution is Advocacy. With an ambitious agenda, the organization acts on several regional and international fronts to further strengthen the position of CHA and the Caribbean hospitality industry.