WASHINGTON, DC – Movers and shakers in the travel and tourism industry are hailing a top Caribbean executive for her recognition as one of the most influential people in the travel industry for 2007.
Travel Weekly, one of the most influential news resources for the travel industry, included Terestella González-Denton, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company in “Club 33” which according to the magazine, “is filled with people who, often working in isolation, had ideas that veered from the status quo and succeeded so spectacularly that the industry jumped out of its rut and followed. They’re the ones who, when they set their own agendas, set ours as well.”
The top 33 list includes the likes of Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airways; former U.S. vice president and Nobel Peace Laureate Al Gore; travel commentator Peter Greenberg of NBC’s Today Show; Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates as well as Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, and J. Kim Sorensen, CEO of YTB Travel Network.
“We know we have phenomenal women in our region,” said Senator Allen Chastanet, Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and St. Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation. “So, it’s gratifying to see others are coming to the same conclusion. Terestella has helped rekindle hope for a united Caribbean when hope was fading and we salute her,” he added .
Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, welcomed Travel Weekly’s selection of González-Denton. “She is a leader in our field who has thought long and hard about the issues facing the Caribbean. She then moved boldly into areas others had not even thought about. She is very special,” he said.
The widely-read trade publication editorialized of its list: “they’ve influenced the course travel is taking in 2007, and we think they’ll be just as influential in 2008.”
Praising González-Denton the magazine highlighted “Explore Beyond the Shore, the tourism mantra, is her credo and she pushes it hard, and with success, to send visitors outside the city limits of the capital, San Juan.”
President of Counterpart International, Lelei LeLaulu, whose organization hosted its 10th full edition of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) in Puerto Rico last May, said “Terestella González-Denton believes in people and makes people of her islands the core beneficiaries of sustainable tourism. That and her immense grace and innovativeness is why she’s a champion. ”
Lelei LeLaulu , president of Counterpart International (left), honors Terestella González-Denton at a CMEx event in Puerto Rico this year.
“Another Level of Innovation” is the focus of the next Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) slated for next month in St. Lucia, from December 6 to 10.
