Vincent Vanderpool Wallace

Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation

Bahamian Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace is no stranger to the soundbite, the catch-phrase, the shorthand that cuts to the heart of the message he is trying to push as the secretary-general of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

His latest contribution to the headline writers: describing Washington's planned introduction of new passport rules for American citizens as a "Category Six hurricane" for Caribbean tourism.

Vanderpool-Wallace, into his job for just over a year - replacing the long-serving Jean Holder at the CTO - faces his biggest challenge yet - mobilising Caribbean opposition to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).

Under the WHTI, U-S citizens returning home from the Caribbean must have a valid passport to enter their homeland, effective January next year. Canada and Mexico will also be affected from January 2008.

Vanderpool-Wallace's pulpit seems to have whipped up strong support to lobby American congressmen.

"I have never seen a greater mobilisation of the governments of the Caribbean," Vanderpool-Wallace was quoted as telling the Barbados Daily Nation. He takes no credit for this effect but industry watchers are certain that without his trademark candour and bottom-line approach to advocacy for the industry, the snowball that has become the opposition to the WHTI could well have been a icecube.

Vanderpool-Wallace's work in tourism has been on both sides of the public-private sector divide, important to running a regional organisation that unites policymakers with industry leaders - individuals with often widely divergent agendas.

His career began in the Bahamian tourism ministry in 1993. For 12 years he was the country's director of tourism. He also chaired the National Tourism Advisory Board and sat on the boards of the Central Bank of The Bahamas and the Chamber of Commerce.

He also spent some time in various managerial positions in the hotel industry.

The recipient of various honours including lifetime achievement awards, Vanderpool-Wallace has been recognised by none other than his current employer, the CTO, as one of fifty people who contributed most to Caribbean tourism in the last half-century.

By Fernella Wedderburn