They had no particular role to play at the Annual General Meeting of the Anguilla Tourism and Hotel Association which met at Four Seasons Resort and Residences on November 8.
But Mr. Cardigan Connor, Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, and Mr. Larry Franklin, Permanent Secretary, Tourism and Economic Development, were nevertheless keen listeners. Among other matters, they took particular note of the wide-ranging and thoughtful address delivered by Mr. Frank Comito, CEO of the Caribbean Hotel Association as well as the addresses delivered by a number of representatives of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association and the Anguilla Tourist Board.
Mr. Connor told The Anguillian newspaper: “I think whenever you have an Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association gathering, it tells you a great deal of the role that they play within the industry. The Guest Speaker, Frank Comito from the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, was very positive about what he said. In fact, anybody who sat in the audience at this meeting would have been very impressed – and also very proud of what Anguilla would have done in its hurricane recovery, how collectively everybody put their hands on deck and made it happen.
“From the Government’s standpoint, we know that the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association has had its financial challenges over the past five or so years – and especially after Hurricane Irma. Last year the Government made a financial commitment to assist the Association because, if a member of your family is struggling, you go out and help and all of us would be succeeding.
“I was very pleased with the numbers that turned up at the meeting as last year, and a couple of years back, there was not many. I am sure that there is a very keen interest as tourism continues to grow. The message from Frank Comito tells us that we are actually on track to achieving exactly the goals that we set out to achieve.”
Mr. Franklin commented: “I think Frank Comito’s speech shows that our dependency on tourism for our economic development, and the need for us to enhance the product to provide more options for our guests, is very important for us to move our product to another level. I think that is very important.”
