Barbados hotelier Patricia Affonso-Dass has taken up office as the new president of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association.

Karolin Troubetzkoy, the regional trade association’s outgoing president, handed over the gavel to Affonso-Dass in a transition at the organisation’s annual general meeting during.

New president Affonso-Dass, who also holds the role of group general manager at Ocean Hotels in Barbados, thanked Troubetzkoy for her selfless efforts leading the association, while Grenadian hotelier Royston Hopkin congratulated her on her steady leadership.

“I would just like to say a sincere thank you for a job well done. I am very proud of you,” Affonso-Dass said.

Troubetzkoy expressed her appreciation for the good wishes of her colleagues.

She will now serve both as chair of CHTA as well as of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Educational Foundation.

A true pan-Caribbean woman, Affonso-Dass, a graduate of Florida International University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, was born in Roseau, Dominica and lived in Trinidad and Antigua before moving to Guyana where she grew up.

She has made Barbados her home for the past 20 years.

Affonso-Dass has been the president of both the Tourism & Hospitality Association of Guyana and the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association and runs the Ocean Hotels group, which is a family-owned company with three unique hotels on the south coast of Barbados.

She will serve as president of the association for the next two years.