BARBADOS — Dominica’s Amanda Charles is the new sustainable tourism specialist at the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
In this role, Charles will coordinate and implement the CTO’s sustainable tourism program aimed at enhancing the development, growth, quality, competitiveness and sustainability of Caribbean tourism.
A tourism professional with several years of experience, Charles most recently worked as the adviser to the directorate of sustainable tourism at the Association of Caribbean States in Trinidad and Tobago, a position she held for five years.
While there, Charles coordinated the directorate’s sustainable tourism program and managed the financial, technical and logistical aspects of the directorate’s projects and activities.
She also worked as a tourism specialist consultant at the Organization of American States’ Department of Economic Development in Washington, D.C., and as a project consultant at the OAS’ Department of Sustainable Development.
A CTO Foundation scholarship winner in 2006 and 2007, Charles is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she earned a master’s degree in tourism administration with an emphasis on sustainable destination management. She also holds a bachelor of science degree in hospitality and tourism management, with minors in business administration and French, from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh.
As the CTO’s sustainable tourism specialist, Charles will lead the organization’s agenda, which includes helping to develop quality standards for Caribbean destinations and their tourism products and services; designing, coordinating and delivering training and development programs dealing with sustainable tourism and product development; and providing and/or facilitating technical advice and assistance on management issues related to product development and sustainable tourism to ministries of tourism, boards of tourism and other public and private sector tourism entities in CTO member states.