The To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (TH­TA) says it is ea­ger to meet with the new­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism, Satyaka­ma "Ka­ma" Ma­haraj, to dis­cuss ways to grow the sec­tor.

In a state­ment re­leased yes­ter­day, the as­so­ci­a­tion con­grat­u­lat­ed Ma­haraj on his ap­point­ment and said it wel­comed his “ear­ly recog­ni­tion of tourism as a vi­tal pil­lar for eco­nom­ic growth.”

“We look for­ward to the op­por­tu­ni­ty to meet with him soon to share these in­sights and to col­lab­o­rate on strate­gies that will strength­en and sus­tain the tourism in­dus­try,” it said.

The TH­TA al­so praised Ma­haraj’s decades of busi­ness ex­pe­ri­ence, say­ing they be­lieve it will help guide na­tion­al tourism de­vel­op­ment.

“Min­is­ter Ma­haraj brings with him decades of ex­pe­ri­ence as a re­spect­ed en­tre­pre­neur and busi­ness leader,” the re­lease said.

Ear­li­er this week, the as­so­ci­a­tion said it met with stake­hold­ers on both is­lands to iden­ti­fy pri­or­i­ty ar­eas for im­prove­ment in the sec­tor. They say these ideas are in line with the new min­is­ter’s goals.

They al­so said they are com­mit­ted to work­ing with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, which has di­rect re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the is­land’s tourism.

“We al­so look for­ward to strength­en­ing our part­ner­ship with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly… in align­ment with the min­istry’s vi­sion and na­tion­al ob­jec­tives,” the as­so­ci­a­tion said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said it re­mains ready to sup­port tourism de­vel­op­ment that ben­e­fits cit­i­zens across both is­lands.