British Virgin Islands Shines in Regional Tourism Youth Congress

Monday, October 16, 2023

In a remarkable display of passion and preparation, Naomi Onwufuju, Junior Minister of Tourism of the British Virgin Islands, won the 19th Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Regional Tourism Youth Congress at Beaches Turks & Caicos in Providenciales.

The 16-year-old expertly articulated three cutting-edge strategies her nation could use to develop and implement an initiative whereby tourism stakeholders and their allied partners can work together to improve access, safety, use, and enjoyment of the destination’s tourism offerings by visitors with disabilities, competing against students from 13 other Caribbean nations.

Onwufuju expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to represent her Territory and win the award.

Naomi highlighted the exceptional ideas from all participants and hoped that their collective vision for tourism would be heard and valued.

The second-place winner, 17-year-old Barbadian Jordan Greig, a student at Harrison College, was honored for his well-organized presentation of his ideas for putting forth a plan to address the challenges with the island’s tourism workers.

Jael Morgan, the junior minister of tourism for Tobago, received third place honors. The 17-year-old student from Signal Hill Secondary School offered three cutting-edge tactics that her nation could use to implement a plan to provide tourists with distinctive, sustainably generated wellness tourism experiences.

Layla Leathen, the junior minister of tourism for the Bahamas, received honorable mention for her outstanding presentation on wellness tourism, which showed a novel method of promoting visitors’ health and well-being.

Sharon Banfield-Bovell, Director of Resource Mobilization and Development for the CTO, said, “It is extremely evident that the future of Caribbean tourism is filled with great promise and potential in the hands of these future leaders.” She praised the participants for their outstanding research, ideas, and presentations.

Fourteen CTO member countries and territories participated in the Regional Tourism Youth Congress, chaired by the 2022 winner, J’nae Brathwaite of Tobago. Each Junior Minister presented on one of the three topics: Wellness Tourism Beyond the Norm, Accessibility Tourism, and Building a Resilient and Sustainable Tourism Workforce.

The event concluded the CTO’s Business Meetings and State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC), which started in the Turks and Caicos Islands on October 9. Winners received prizes from various sponsors, including the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Turks and Caicos Islands Ministry of Tourism, Flow, Chukka Caribbean Adventures, Carnival Corporation, Acordis International Corp, and Dufry.

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