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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (April 30, 2002) – John H. Bell, director general and CEO of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), announced his retirement after 28 years with CHA and almost four decades working in the Caribbean hospitality industry.
“John Bell’s departure is a huge loss to CHA and the Caribbean hospitality industry at large,” said Ralph Taylor, president of CHA. “John has done a truly outstanding job helping to build the association from its early years - his commitment to the industry is simply unmatched.” Bell’s resignation is effective December 31st, 2002.
Bell first joined CHA in 1974 when he was appointed the first executive director for CHA and chairman of the Small Hotels Advisory Council. Since then, he has helped the membership of the association grow by over 300 percent. Over the past 28 years, Bell has helped create subsidiary companies to deal with the association's thriving activities in training, publishing, culinary, environment and real estate development. He supervised the creation of CHA Marketplace, the annual tourism marketing meeting that brings together Caribbean hoteliers and international buyers; the Taste of the Caribbean culinary event; the Leadership Conference for national hotel association executives; the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference; and CHIC - the annual Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference. In the area of marketing, Bell was also responsible for the development of the Caribbean Gold Book, a travel agent's Bible for the Caribbean hotel industry, and CHARMS, the regional electronic reservation service, as well as the private sector-led regional marketing trust known as ‘Great Places in the Caribbean,’ scheduled for launch in the US market in July 2002.
Most recently, Bell was key in successfully urging CARICOM to convene a Caribbean-wide Tourism Summit, which was held last December 2001. As a result, CARICOM took the unprecedented decision to match CHA’s private sector marketing trust with a $4 million cash contribution, and called upon CTO to encourage its non-CARICOM member governments to support the program with a further $4 million.
Bell has been involved in the Caribbean hotel and tourism industry for more than 30 years, serving as president of the Trinidad & Tobago Hotel & Tourism Association from 1971-1974; general manager of the Bel Air Hotel in Trinidad from 1967-1974; and assistant manager of the Blue Lagoon Hotel, St. Vincent, 1964-1967.
CHA has appointed a Search and Transition Committee under the chairmanship of CHA President Ralph Taylor to undertake the selection of candidates for the position of Director General and CEO. A leadership statement and an invitation to present credentials and qualifications will be released shortly to initiate the selection process.
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