For only the second time in its 45-year history, a Dominican has been chosen to head the Caribbean Hotel Association. This time, the honor falls to Enrique de Marchena Kaluche, who will serve a two-year term, 2008-2010. De Marchena was the unanimous candidate of the CHA nominations committee, which is meeting in Santo Domingo this week. De Marchena, a lawyer, has been president of the the National Hotel and Restaurant Association (Asonahores). In addition to his private law practice, he is a member of the Elliot Group, a Canadian entity that manages Sun Village in Cofresi. The company also has a project under way in Juan Dolio.
The Caribbean Hotel Association brings together 36 hotel associations that manage 849 hotels with 125,000 rooms across the Caribbean.
De Marchena is the second Dominican to head the organization in the past five years. Simon Suarez, then of Coral Hotels and today with Hilton hotel chain, presided CHA from 2002-2004.