Above: the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort in St Thomas

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Richard Doumeng takes office Thursday as the new president of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association.

Doumeng, a second-generation hotelier and former CHTA Caribbean Hotelier of the Year, is the managing director of the Bolongo Bay Beach Resort in St Thomas.

“CHTA is an association of National Hotel Associations — by strengthening the National Hotel Associations, we will bring direct and tangible value to our membership,” Doumeng said. “Our success as a region is tied to their success.”

Doumeng said his goals for his two-year term would be to return CHTA to fiscal responsibility, focus its energy on programmes and events benefiting the “majority of the membership” and improving the relationship between CHTA and the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

“While the economy is still uncertain, I am optimistic for the future of our region,” he said. “Together, we can reinvigorate, revitalize and reinvent the CHTA so that we will thrive, not just survive, in the next 50 years.”

Doumeng was elected at the Annual General Meeting of the CHTA in Miami last June.