Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) presented its “Distinguished Caribbean Citizen Award” to Dr Roy A Hastick, Sr., president and CEO of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI), during a recent CACCI small business development power breakfast meeting.
The honour is part of CTO’s Caribbean Tourism Industry Awards given annually during Caribbean Week New York festivities.
“The Caribbean Tourism Organisation recognises Dr Roy Hastick for his longstanding commitment to representing the interests of Caribbean people at the New York City and State levels,” said Riley. “His steadfast endeavours to strengthen commercial links between the Caribbean and the region’s Diaspora are particularly worthy of commendation and for that reason we have bestowed the Distinguished Caribbean Citizen Award on him.”
“I am excited and thrilled to receive the Distinguished Caribbean Citizen Award from the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, a prestigious association that promotes tourism in the region throughout the world,” said Hastick. “For over 33 years CACCI has been promoting trade, investment and tourism between the United States and the Caribbean as well as helping thousands of small businesses in the New York metropolitan area survive and thrive.”
Hastick was born in Grenada and migrated to the US in 1972 and worked for several years as an administrator, community advocate, entrepreneur and newspaper publisher. Through his involvement with organisations in the Borough of Brooklyn, Hastick recognised the need for the Caribbean community to unify in support of one another in order to improve the quality of life for everyone. As a result of his work in the small business community, Hastick was appointed Honorary Brooklyn Ambassador by Brooklyn Borough president Eric L Adams.
As president and CEO of CACCI, he has helped grow the statewide membership organisation to over 1,700 and provides expertise in providing business assistance to small start-up and emerging businesses in areas of business planning, financing, procurement, preparation for certification and business expansion, tourism and export/import opportunities.
CACCI’s extensive track record of service delivery includes sponsoring over 600 business networking meetings and establishing partnerships with US government and private business entities. Over the years, CACCI has sponsored numerous trade missions to the Caribbean, convened business meetings and held briefing sessions on behalf of several Caribbean Heads of State including Prime Ministers of Jamaica, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Barbados, Haiti, Dominica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Chief Minister of Montserrat.
In August 2017, the CTO and CACCI formalised a cooperation strategy between the two organisations to enhance the level of engagement with the Caribbean Diaspora and to strengthen relationships with entities serving the people of the Caribbean.
Caribbean Tourism Organisation
