Caribbean Tourism Pioneer Makes Hall of Fame History

A Barbadian trailblazer is among the first women ever enshrined in the CTO’s newly established Hall of Fame — and her story says as much about the future of Caribbean travel as it does about the past.

The gilded interiors of the InterContinental New York Times Square aren’t an unusual setting for high-powered conversations about the Caribbean. Every June, during Caribbean Week in New York, the region’s most influential tourism minds converge on Manhattan to pitch, plan, and position their destinations to the world’s most competitive travel market. But this year, something genuinely historic happened amid the familiar rhythm of receptions and strategy sessions.

For the first time in its decades-long history, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) inducted a class of women into its inaugural Hall of Fame — and among them stood Petra Roach, one of the region’s most decorated and widely respected tourism executives. It was a moment that felt less like a ceremony and more like a reckoning: a formal acknowledgment that the Caribbean’s global tourism success has long been powered by women whose contributions have too often gone without the recognition they deserve.

A Historic First for Caribbean Tourism

The CTO Hall of Fame, established in 2026 as part of the Caribbean Women in Tourism Leadership Awards, was designed with a clear mandate: to permanently honor women whose vision, resilience, and strategic thinking have helped shape one of the world’s most competitive travel regions. The Caribbean draws tens of millions of visitors annually, generates hundreds of billions in economic output, and sits at the intersection of culture, hospitality, and global mobility. The people who steer that machine — often behind the scenes — rarely get marquee billing.

That changes now.

Roach was inducted alongside five other trailblazers whose careers collectively span every corner of the archipelago: Karolin Troubetzkoy, the executive director behind the acclaimed Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts in St. Lucia; Rosa Harris, Director of Tourism for the Cayman Islands; Valérie Damaseau, Commissioner of Tourism and Culture for Saint-Martin; Marsha Henderson, Minister of Tourism for St. Kitts and Nevis; and Beverly Nicholson-Doty, CEO of Figment Design. Together, they represent the breadth of leadership — from boutique luxury to government policy — that has defined Caribbean tourism’s modern era.

Twenty-Five Years in the Making

For Roach, the Hall of Fame induction is the capstone of a career that has quietly shaped how Barbados — and by extension the broader Eastern Caribbean — is perceived, marketed, and visited by travelers worldwide.

With more than a quarter-century of leadership experience, she has moved through virtually every critical vantage point in the industry. She served as Vice President for the United Kingdom market, a role that required sophisticated understanding of European travel behavior and long-haul booking dynamics. She led global markets strategy for Barbados, helping position the island as a year-round destination rather than a seasonal one. She served as Interim CEO of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., holding the region’s most visible tourism marketing role during a period that demanded both steady leadership and creative reinvention.

Then came Grenada. As CEO of the Grenada Tourism Authority, Roach led the Spice Isle through a period of remarkable momentum — record arrivals, elevated international profile, and the kind of industry recognition that transforms a destination’s long-term trajectory. It was during this tenure that her reputation as a builder — someone who doesn’t just manage tourism ecosystems but genuinely grows them — was fully cemented.

Her peers took note. In 2024, she became the first Director to be named the CTO’s Director of Tourism of the Year, an honor that foreshadowed this latest and most enduring recognition.

“This recognition is deeply meaningful because it reflects the many mentors, colleagues, partners, and teams who have been part of my journey,” Roach said at the ceremony. “Tourism has the power to transform economies and improve lives, and I am grateful to have contributed to the growth and success of our region.”

Why This Matters to Travelers

It’s easy to frame a Hall of Fame induction as an inside-baseball industry story — meaningful to the trade, but distant from the experience of someone booking a flight to Bridgetown or planning a villa rental in Grenada. But that framing misses something important.

The decisions made by tourism executives like Roach ripple directly into what travelers encounter on the ground. Destination marketing shapes which islands get discovered. Investment in hospitality infrastructure determines whether a beach town feels like a well-kept secret or a well-oiled experience. Diplomatic and trade relationships developed at forums like Caribbean Week in New York directly influence airlift — which routes are profitable enough for airlines to maintain, which gateways stay open year-round, and ultimately how accessible a destination remains for the average traveler.

When Roach led market development in the UK, she wasn’t just pitching to travel agents. She was building the foundation that makes Barbados one of the best-connected Caribbean islands for transatlantic visitors today. When she grew Grenada’s tourism numbers, she was helping fund the infrastructure — roads, beaches, dining scenes — that now welcome curious travelers who’d previously overlooked the island.

The Hall of Fame, in this context, isn’t just ceremonial. It’s a signal about what kind of leadership Caribbean tourism will continue to invest in and celebrate — strategic, relationship-driven, and built on genuine understanding of how destinations compete globally.

The Caribbean Tourism Landscape in 2026

The timing of this inaugural Hall of Fame couldn’t be more pointed. Caribbean tourism is navigating a complex moment: record demand from North American and European travelers, persistent airlift challenges, climate resilience pressures, and growing competition from emerging long-haul destinations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

In this environment, experienced hands matter enormously. The destinations that will thrive over the next decade are those with seasoned leadership capable of making smart, long-term calls — diversifying source markets, investing in sustainable product development, and building the kind of authentic destination brands that stand out in an era of algorithmic travel search and influencer saturation.

Roach’s current role as Director of Sales and Marketing at Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lord’s Castle Resort & Spa places her at another front line of the region’s hospitality evolution. The resort, which reopened as part of one of Barbados’ most historically resonant properties, represents exactly the kind of product-market positioning that Caribbean destinations need to get right — luxury with local character, heritage with modern comfort.

Her ongoing advocacy for leadership development and regional collaboration suggests that her Hall of Fame induction won’t simply be a career highlight. It reads more like an accelerant.

A Blueprint for the Region

What the inaugural CTO Hall of Fame class collectively represents is a blueprint — a set of careers that illustrate how Caribbean tourism leadership can be developed, sustained, and ultimately institutionalized. These are not accidental careers. They are the product of mentorship networks, institutional investment, and individual determination to compete on a global stage that doesn’t always make space for women from small island developing states.

That the CTO chose to formalize this recognition now, when the Caribbean is fighting hard for its share of global travel spend, is itself a strategic act. It says: this is what we value, this is who we’re building toward, and this is the standard against which future leaders will be measured.

For travelers, that’s quietly reassuring. The Caribbean you visit next winter — the welcome at the airport, the quality of the hotel experience, the coherence of the destination brand — is the downstream result of decades of strategic leadership by people exactly like Petra Roach.

The Hall of Fame just made sure the world knows their names.

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