by Devonne Cornelius
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Mr. Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority (SKTA), has provided additional details into the hiring of Bahamian Ellison Thompson as Chief Executive Officer of the SKTA.
“The position of CEO is a very critical position. You need to have information, knowledge, and experience on our source markets,” Mr. Menon said. “You need to have relationships with airlines; logistical; public relations; human resources; team building; data; and marketing skills; and given the technical nature of this position it has been a difficult and narrow sector of people that you’re looking for that possess those skill sets,” he added.
Thompson served as Deputy Director-General of The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, where he developed global marketing strategies for the Ministry, focusing on the Family Islands, Grand Bahama Island, and niche market promotions.
Thompson’s depth of industry experience and an aggressive approach to filling the senior position were factors in naming the candidate.
“Overlay that with the timing and the need of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority at this point in time, we had two options to go by. Either we go to market and the traditional advertising and recruitment process which would take three to six months or in the short term, we go and visit some head hunters and we ask them who in the industry is available…so we chose the latter,” he explained.
Despite the new process, fifteen candidates expressed interest in the senior role.
Thompson has also held other positions for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and The Bahamas Tourist Offices in the UK and has additional experience managing visitor relations, cruise development, product development, and sales representation.
