A Message from the GHTA President
Dear Members,
I hope this finds you healthy and as well as can be expected in these challenging times. As you all are well aware, due to the COVID-19 virus, business and life in general has changed radically. We are facing challenges as both an industry and a nation that are unique and greater than anything else we have faced before in our lifetime. No one can predict how long this will go on for and what the recovery will look like. In that regard, I want to reassure you that since the beginning of this crisis and as things have evolved and changed daily the GHTA has been in communication with Government, the Grenada Tourism Authority, the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association and the Caribbean Tourism Organization in an effort to mitigate the circumstances as much as possible. Despite the office being closed, our CEO, Arlene Friday and CTO, Clevon Noel, have worked tirelessly along with the Board of Directors to ensure that our voice was and continues to be heard in the media as well as at countless consultations and meetings with Government. We have a very good working relationship with the Minister of Tourism and have spoken to her practically every day as we work together to develop a plan to assist the Tourism sector. We all are aware of the limited resources that the Government has even in the best of times. With that in mind, we met with Minister Modeste - Curwen yesterday afternoon via Zoom and presented her with the attached document. In particular, it addresses the immediate financial issues that our sector faces as well as proposed actions to be taken by the Government. There are still many issues to address and more that will become apparent as time goes by, however, these are the most important issues that we face at the immediate time. We are hoping for a response from the Minister by the end of the week. Going forward we will continue to keep you up to date as to what we are working on with government to assist us, via email as well as webinars that I encourage you to partake in. They will give you an opportunity to access further information and also let you hear the voices of others both locally and regionally as we collectively try to navigate our way through these difficult times. We are a resilient nation and we will get through this the same way we did after Hurricane Ivan. By working together.
Best regards,
Jerry Rappaport
President