The Saint Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association (SLHTA) has announced plans to activate its disaster relief fund in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, which left several Caribbean islands grappling with severe damage. The association said it is working closely with its regional partners to coordinate an organized and impactful relief effort.
Chief Executive Officer Noorani Azeez said the SLHTA has already received formal communication from the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) to begin mobilizing support.
“The SLHTA is already at receipt of a communique from the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association with instructions on the activation of the disaster relief fund at the CHTA,” Azeez stated.
“We have already shared that with our board of directors, and we are mounting a strategy on how we can roll that out to other caring members of the organization and other Saint Lucians who may be interested in making donations towards this recovery.”
According to Azeez, the association is aligning its efforts with its regional counterparts to ensure a coordinated response.
“We expect as an association to be aligning very, very closely with our mother agency, the Regional Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association,” he said.
“We note that the current president of the CHTA is a former president of the SLHTA and a son of the soil in Saint Lucia, President Sanovnik Destang. And so, we have a very, very open channel with the work that the CHTA is doing.”
He emphasized that Saint Lucia stands ready to contribute alongside tourism bodies across the Caribbean. “We stand ready alongside our sister agencies across the other 35 member organizations of the CHTA to do what we must in order to raise funding and provide relief to our sister islands as much as is humanly possible,” Azeez affirmed.
The SLHTA has a history of stepping up in times of regional crisis, having previously extended aid to Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Vincent following natural disasters. “Saint Lucia and the SLHTA is not a newbie in circumstances of this nature,” Azeez said.
“In the past we have provided significant support and relief to Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent, and now we are readying ourselves for what promises to be the greatest demand on our resources and our support.”
He stressed that the association’s relief initiatives will be guided by expert assessments and coordinated through the CHTA to ensure efficiency and impact.
“The kind of relief that we provide will be guided by the experts,” Azeez explained. “We will be aligning those resources through the CHTA to ensure that the assessments are supported and that the needs and gaps are filled with a more targeted approach.”
As the region continues to assess the full impact of Hurricane Melissa, the SLHTA says it remains committed to doing its part in helping affected Caribbean nations rebuild and recover.