Sanovnik Destang is the incoming CHTA president

FOR TWO years, starting this summer, St Lucian Sanovnik Destang will hold the mantle of leadership in the capacity as president of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), succeeding Jamaican Nicola Madden-Greig.

Destang, a chartered accountant, a chartered financial analyst, and a certified public accountant, worked at KPMG for four years before returning to Saint Lucia to work in the family business, Bay Garden Resorts, Reduit Beach, Rodney Bay village, as executive director since 2008. He is the holder of a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a focus on accounting and finance from York University in Toronto, Canada. He has also completed several certificates in hospitality management at Cornell University.

Destang’s educational and professional backgrounds seem solid and relevant for the job, but why does he want to be president of the CHTA?

“I have been on the board of CHTA since 2012 in various capacities and previously served at the president of the St Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association. I’m passionate about the Caribbean and its development and see private sector-led tourism development ... if done the right way and with a focus on our people first ... as a means to achieving our economic and social goals – generating wealth, true independence and the type of society we can be proud of,” he told The Gleaner.

“I see the opportunity to serve as a chance to continue the phenomenal work started by my predecessors, as I stand on the shoulders of giants. But it also presents an opportunity to bring other elements to the conversation. Three things I will focus on for sure will be people, technology and community, with a focus on fostering deep social and economic linkages between tourism and agriculture, manufacturing, the arts, entertainment and other sectors.”

Destang is “honoured that the membership has shown so much faith” in him and his generation and definitely intends “to represent and serve”. When the ‘first CHTA president born in the 1980s was asked, “What sort of leadership style do you want to be guided by?” he said, “I’m a servant leader by nature. People allow you to lead not so much because of what you know, but how you make them feel. I work for the membership and will always be guided by their needs, diverse as they might be.”

He was at the CHTA 42nd Caribbean Travel Marketplace, held at the Montego Bay Conference Centre, overseen by current President Madden-Creig, and he has this to say about her: “Nicola is a force of nature. From my first interaction and observation of her years ago, it was always my hope that she would one day be a CHTA president, and I’m glad that I got to see this happen and observe this up close. Her persistence and grace under pressure, especially during COVID, was remarkable; and the role that she played in leading our recovery efforts out of the pandemic was commendable. I learned so much from her … Jamaica was an excellent host, as always, and set the bar very high for Marketplace 2025!”

And for the first marketplace under his tenure, Destang said a destination is yet to be announced, “but it does seem that there is a lot of interest from new destinations that have never hosted it before, which is very exciting.”

BOOSTING ONLINE BOOKINGS

He shared, “Some of the main things that I want to see introduced to marketplace is a major expansion of buyers focused on driving direct online bookings to the mix of buyers that hotels can meet with. More and more hotels are expressing an interest in driving more business direct, while maintaining strong relationships with their traditional travel partners. So, we can expect to see many more of these, and, potentially, a day focused on these buyers, and education sessions focused on digital marketing for hospitality.”

He also believes Caribbean Marketplace should be used as a means of highlighting other aspects of the industry (vendors, manufacturers, agro-processors, etc), as many of the key decision-makers are on the floor.

“This sort of linkages in the tourism marketplace element has been present before at CHTA Marketplace. Last, building on the success of the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) meetings, we have an opportunity to introduce other niche tour operators to the mix – sporting, romance, etc,” he said.

And when his initial tenure is up, he is hoping that “we would have achieved improvements in adoption of industry-leading hospitality technologies – the AI guidebook was just the beginning – in the Caribbean hospitality industry; a deeper understanding of the importance of people development to our sustained performance, along with that higher level of employee satisfaction and engagement in their industry, and last, a better appreciation of the critical importance of linkages between tourism and other sectors.