Above: the new CHTA leadership team; from left, CMO Matt Cooper, COO Vanessa Ledesma, current President Emil Lee and new CEO Frank Comito (CJ Photo)

By Alexander Britell

SAN JUAN — The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association has named a new leadership team, including a new Chief Executive Officer.

Frank Comito, a former executive vice president of the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association, was elected as CEO ahead of this week’s CHTA Caribbean Travel Marketplace conference, which is being held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

His election was announced at the CHTA’s Board of Directors meeting at the Sheraton hotel on Wednesday morning and made official at the opening ceremonies of the Caribbean Travel Marketplace conference on Wednesday evening.

Comito succeeds Jeff Vasser in the role, after the latter stepped down at the end of 2014.

Comito is part of a new executive team that includes CMO Matt Cooper and, in a first for the organization, a new Chief Operating Officer, Vanessa Ledesma.

The capacity an organization like CHTA has to impact our industry, our economies, business and lives and the livelihoods of people throughout the region,” Comito said. “That capacity lies in our ability, very simply, to connect the dots.

He said there were opportunities to have even greater impacts in the region.

“My challenge is to help to connect he dots, to help make our members, our national hotel association, their jurisdictions and the region as a whole a better place for tourism,” he said.