Above: Barbados (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc has named Petra Roach as its new head of for the United States market.

Roach, a veteran of the island’s tourism industry, had previously held the position of vice president in the United Kingdom market for 12 years.

She had led the organization as interim CEO during its transition period, following the restructuring of the Barbados Tourism Authority last year.

“The US market offers significant potential for Barbados so the focus will be on looking at where the opportunities are and putting plans in place to realize those opportunities,” Roach said in a statement. “It will be a steep learning curve getting to know the intricacies of our partners’ businesses and understanding the makeup of the distribution network here in the US but I am so excited at the task ahead.”

Under Roach’s leadership, the UK office helped engineer a number of successful initiatives for Barbados, including last year’s Top Gear Festival in Barbados.

“2015 is expected to be a growth year for Barbados and we expect that the US market will be a major contributor to that growth,” Roach said.