“Progress is key”
Willemstad, March 31, 2022 – Yesterday, CHATA hosted its first membership meeting of 2023, with the goal to inform all members regarding the recent developments within the sector and CHATA as well as allowing members to network and participate in interesting presentations. The membership meeting, hosting 100 attendees, was sponsored by CHATA Member, MCB and was held at CHATA Member, Renaissance Wind Creek Curaçao Resort. The first meeting of the year mainly focused on ‘CHATA 2.0’ and the signed MOU with CTB, with introductions by CHATA’s Vice-Chairman, Mr. Rick van der Pluijm, and presentations by HR Partner Specialist, Romy Nieuwenhuis, CTB’s Counterpart Director, Muryad de Bruin, and CHATA’s Interim Managing Director, Jim Hepple.
Mr. van der Pluijm started the morning off with a warm welcome to the attendees and reiterating the agenda, highlighting points of each presentation and introducing each presenter and their topics. Romy Nieuwenhuis was the first presenter of the morning, giving her presentation on ‘How to attract & develop hospitality talents’ discussing one of the most relevant topics of the Tourism Industry, which is not only attracting potential employees, but also maintaining the excelling employees. Ms. Niewenhuis highlighted the different generations as well as their working methods and gave helpful tips on how to keep your employees content and how to show appreciation for the work that they continue doing for their company.
Next, Mr. van der Pluijm introduced Mr. Muryad de Bruin as the second speaker of the event, presenting overall stayover data insights and highlighting the MOU agreement between CHATA and CTB. Mr. de Bruin started off his presentation with a summary of last year’s visitor’s result and what CTB’s plans are for the upcoming year, stating that they’re working on collaborating with different influencers and sports partnerships. It was also shared that in 2022, Curaçao has reached its highest North American visitors in which a majority of them were new visitors, rather than people who have visited the island before. Towards the end of his presentation, Mr. de Bruin mentioned the MOU agreement that was signed, stating that the MOU is continuing and improving the relationship with CHATA; it will allow alignment and agreement on action points and moving forward.
The last presentation of the day was given by Mr. Hepple where he elaborated on the state of the industry, CHATA’s priorities and the benefits of the CHATA/CTB MOU. “CHATA’s priorities are lobbying, allowing more network opportunities as well as making sure that CHATA increases the amount of information provided to its members. We will also be working closely with CTB to implement the MOU successfully by being an integral part of the steering, marketing and airlift committees,” shares Mr. Hepple. He continued to share that CHATA will continue to give regular updates on the organization and its progress and strive to maintain the Membership’s desires and necessities.
To close the meeting, members had the opportunity to ask questions regarding the presentations given. Overall, the membership meeting was a great success, thank you to MCB for sponsoring the meeting as well as Renaissance Wind Creek Curaçao Resort for hosting. CHATA looks forward to continuing working together with all parties to achieve our goals.
