CHTA has created a “jobs bank” to match candidates with tourism-related employment opportunities

CHTA has created a “jobs bank” to match candidates with tourism-related employment opportunities. This is said to have been sparked by the need to assist Caribbean Tourism Industry Workers impacted by last fall’s hurricanes. The jobs bank launched last month, has already helped several people from hurricane impacted destinations, to find new employment opportunities in the region and in the United States. The initiative is made possible by the Caribbean Tourism Recovery Fund, a partnership between CHTA & the Tourism Cares organization.
 
CHTA’s CEO and Director General Frank Comito explained that the new platform is open to all CHTA member hotel industry professionals, at all levels across the hospitality sector. While the focus is on assisting the temporarily or permanently unemployed from the affected destinations, it is a Caribbean-wide initiative.
 
As he urged hotels throughout the region and elsewhere to post vacancies, Comito said ‘While the jobs bank has been created to serve an immediate urgent need, our intention is that it will be the permanent go-to resource for career opportunities at every level in Caribbean hospitality, from cook to general manager’.
 
He explained that in the near term, it is CHTA’s hope that those displaced employees from the region’s six destinations most impacted by the hurricanes, will be able to take advantage of the time to keep their skills fresh, and that employers will utilize the service. “We are confident that those employers, who contract with an impacted employee for the season or while their home hotel is under refurbishment, will realize tremendous value in their expertise, while helping to mitigate the hardship employees are experiencing.”
 
Meanwhile, CHTA continues to advocate for the unfettered movement of qualified tourism industry professionals throughout the entire region. Comito pointed to facilities in the OECS, where nationals can move and work freely, and in the US Territories where most residents of the USVI & Puerto Rico, can work within each jurisdiction in the United States, without visa or work permit requirements.
 
Through the online jobs bank, CHTA has simplified the process for both employers and employees, to post and respond to vacancies. Their site is accessible at: https://caribbeanhotelandtourism.site-ym.com/networking/default.asp
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