The Tribune

BAHAMAS Junior Minister of Tourism Gabrielle Josephs has become the first person from his country to win the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s (CTO) Tourism Youth Congress.

In Barbados last Friday, the Mary Star of the Sea student from Freeport, Grand Bahama, outperformed 14 others from the region to claim the title of Caribbean Junior Minister of Tourism.

“I am truly honoured and humbled to have been selected out of all of the outstanding students in the region,” Mr Josephs said. “I now represent, not only the Bahamas, but the entire Caribbean as the voice of the youth on tourism matters. I take this new responsibility very seriously.”

Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe congratulated the Grand Bahama student. “Gabrielle continues to represent the Bahamas well and make us proud. I congratulate him for another outstanding performance and I am certain that many more Bahamian students will follow in his footsteps. He has indeed paved the way for young Bahamians wishing to make an impact on the tourism industry. We look forward to great things from him,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

Tourism Director General Joy Jibrilu was also impressed by Mr Joseph’s performance. “This is the third time that I’ve seen Gabrielle in action, and he is a natural. We were already proud to call him our Junior Minister of Tourism and now we are proud to say that our Bahamian student is the Junior Minister of the entire region. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment.”

Mr Josephs spent months preparing for his topic “Flow Experiences” with the help of Samantha Cartwright, co-ordinator of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism’s Junior Minister of Tourism programme. He presented an outstanding idea for creating flow experiences for visitors to the Bahamas that would bring about memorable encounters - the Islands of The Bahamas Theme Park, which would allow visitors to immerse themselves in Bahamian culture and experiences of each island.

“Hard work and dedication truly pays off in the end. We put the work into preparing for this competition and we came out victorious. I reminded Gabrielle that he is representing not only himself, but also the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, and he performed for his country,” Ms Cartwright said.

In addition to their chosen topic, the students were also given a mystery question that aimed to test the students in three core areas: research skills, expressing themselves clearly and thinking on their feet.

Mr Josephs passed the test with flying colours with his response to the question: “Choose a celebrity from the Caribbean and explain how he/she could be used to promote the region.” He had one minute to formulate his answer.

Mr Josephs win came a day after Mr Wilchcombe was elected chairman of CTO and Ms Jibrilu was named chairman of the CTO Board of Governors.

Along with the title, Mr Josephs also received several prizes from CTO, including a round trip ticket for two on Caribbean Airlines.