Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­al Naren­dra Ramgu­lam has been ap­point­ed by the Caribbean Tourism Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CTO) as its new Deputy Di­rec­tor, Sus­tain­able Tourism.

This new­ly cre­at­ed po­si­tion un­der­scores the CTO's com­mit­ment to pri­ori­tis­ing sus­tain­able and re­gen­er­a­tive tourism de­vel­op­ment across the re­gion, a state­ment by the CTO said.

It added that Ramgu­lam, who ini­tial­ly joined the CTO last year as a Sus­tain­able Tourism Con­sul­tant, has quick­ly proven his in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions to the or­gan­i­sa­tion's vi­sion for a more re­silient and in­clu­sive tourism sec­tor.

His for­mal ap­proval by the CTO Board of Di­rec­tors marks a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in ad­vanc­ing the CTO's am­bi­tious Reimag­ine Plan.

"We are pleased to wel­come Naren­dra to this new lead­er­ship role," stat­ed CTO Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al Dona Reg­is-Pros­per.

"His con­tri­bu­tions over the past year have been in­stru­men­tal, and we are con­fi­dent that his ex­per­tise, in­no­va­tion, and deep pas­sion for sus­tain­abil­i­ty will con­tin­ue to el­e­vate our work across the re­gion."

In his new ca­pac­i­ty, Ramgu­lam will be at the fore­front of strate­gic de­vel­op­ment and im­ple­men­ta­tion for ini­tia­tives fo­cused on pro­mot­ing and en­hanc­ing sus­tain­able and re­gen­er­a­tive tourism in CTO mem­ber coun­tries.

The CTO said that his ex­ten­sive port­fo­lio will in­clude craft­ing re­gion­al strate­gies and poli­cies, bol­ster­ing stake­hold­er ca­pac­i­ty, high­light­ing suc­cess­ful case stud­ies and best prac­tices, and dili­gent­ly mon­i­tor­ing the ef­fec­tive­ness of sus­tain­abil­i­ty pro­grammes.

It not­ed that Ramgu­lam brings a wealth of ex­pe­ri­ence and aca­d­e­m­ic rigour to this cru­cial role.

A pro­lif­ic re­searcher, he boasts 13 pub­li­ca­tions in peer-re­viewed jour­nals and book chap­ters.

Pri­or to his work with the CTO, he served as Di­rec­tor of Tourism Prod­uct De­vel­op­ment & Des­ti­na­tion Man­age­ment at the To­ba­go Tourism Agency Lim­it­ed.

Dur­ing his tenure there, his ef­forts gar­nered pres­ti­gious sus­tain­abil­i­ty awards and sig­nif­i­cant­ly en­hanced the agency's rep­u­ta­tion for safe­ty dur­ing the chal­leng­ing COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

He al­so held po­si­tions as a Post­grad­u­ate Co­or­di­na­tor and Lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus.

Ramgu­lam is set to of­fi­cial­ly as­sume his new du­ties in mid-Au­gust and will be based at the CTO head­quar­ters in Bar­ba­dos.

The CTO, head­quar­tered in Bar­ba­dos, is the lead­ing tourism de­vel­op­ment agency for the Caribbean. Com­pris­ing mem­ber coun­tries and ter­ri­to­ries from Dutch, Eng­lish, and French-speak­ing re­gions, along­side a di­verse range of pri­vate sec­tor al­lied mem­bers, the CTO's over­ar­ch­ing vi­sion is to po­si­tion the Caribbean as the most de­sir­able, year-round, warm-weath­er des­ti­na­tion.

Its core pur­pose is "Lead­ing Sus­tain­able Tourism - One Sea, One Voice, One Caribbean," pro­vid­ing spe­cialised sup­port and tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance in ar­eas such as sus­tain­able tourism de­vel­op­ment, mar­ket­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, ad­vo­ca­cy, hu­man re­source de­vel­op­ment, event plan­ning and ex­e­cu­tion, and re­search and in­for­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy.