Ms. Yvonne Armour-Shillingford brings to the post of Chief Executive Officer of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority (SVGTA) over 25 years of extensive local, regional and international experience in the Tourism and Hospitality industry.

Being born into a family who are tourism/hospitality pioneers in Dominica, from a very early age she was involved in family-run hotel properties, ground tour operations, scuba diving, whale watching operations, and local, regional and international tourism marketing activities, where she gained extensive practical experience in the hospitality/tourism industry as a precursor of her formal education, at the prestigious Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland and at Schiller International University in London, England.  She immediately applied this early international education, as upon graduation, she was engaged in wide-ranging tourism representation of her country in the UK and throughout Europe, and went on to launch and manage on behalf of the Dominican Government, Dominica’s first overseas national tourist office based in London and serving the UK and European markets. Within only one year, her efforts at marketing Dominica resulted in a remarkable increase in tourist arrivals from Europe.

In her most previous position from 2005-2008, Ms. Armour-Shillingford was based at the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) headquarters in Barbados, where she filled the post of Human Resource Development Advisor and managed the Human Resources component of an 8 million euro European Union project entitled the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Development Programme (CRSTDP). The main focus of this second assignment at the CTO was on human resource initiatives, targeted at both the public and private sector and the formal education system within the Caribbean, working towards empowering regional tourism practitioners with the aim to make the Caribbean tourism sector more competitive and sustainable.

Prior to that, from 2003 to 2004, she filled the post of Technical Advisor and Coordinator of the Caribbean Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) for the CTO under an OAS-CIDA/CPEC-funded initiative.  The focus was on the development and implementation of the components of the Caribbean Tourism Learning System (CTLS) designed to facilitate a strategic and coordinated approach to tourism education and training in the region.

Her experience also included work as a regional multi-lingual Tourism Consultant involved in various assignments, namely Lead Consultant in the French islands responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Health and Tourism Sensitization workshops; an AH&LA Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE); Hotel Management/HRD Consultant; part-time Lecturer at the Barbados Community College Hospitality Institute; as Managing Director leading organizational change in a consortium of long-standing tourism/hospitality operations in Dominica, among others.  Ms. Armour-Shillingford has trained persons at all levels within the Tourism industry, from public/private sector policy makers and managers to tour guides/taxi drivers and other front-line tourism/hospitality personnel.

Other areas of expertise and professional experience include tourism development/planning, small-medium enterprise development, tourism promotion and marketing, human resource development and training, hotel operations/ management, public relations and networking locally, regionally and internationally, management of external aid funded projects; development of strategies and training programmes related to sustainable tourism, environmental health and tourism education; management and evaluation of training programmes at various levels within the tourism/hospitality industry; development and delivery of seminars and training programmes in English and French, oversight for the design and delivery of regional tourism/hospitality training programmes, including regional capacity building in areas of on-line course development & e-tutoring.  Ms Armour-Shillingford, a proud mother of two sons and one daughter, is also fluent in French, proficient in Spanish, conversant in Creole and studied basic German and Italian.

The various roles Ms. Armour-Shillingford filled throughout her career as a tourism and hospitality professional, as well as her ongoing professional development, had, as an overarching goal, the delivery of quality international standards of excellence. Over time, and through her far-reaching regional and international travels, she has developed a strong understanding and keen sense of the crucial links between tourism, education, culture, health and environmental issues and how these can be merged to foster more sustainable and economically viable development. As a result, she has a strong personal commitment to health and wellness, and environmental preservation and is dedicated to making a positive contribution to the sustainable development of our global village.

Ms. Armour-Shilingford’s aim is to apply her talents and experiences to be part of, lead and contribute to the development of a highly motivated, results-oriented, skilled and effective SVGTA team, working towards promoting and selling genuine Vincentian quality experiences, globally competitive products and services and seeking to consistently deliver international standards of business and service excellence; thereby meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations. This approach would require the development of quality tourism/hospitality enterprises and organizations, and would ultimately contribute to enhanced brand recognition, increased global competitiveness, sustainable development, empowerment of human resources, economic growth and poverty alleviation within SVG.

Embracing this opportunity to be of service to the SVGTA and fully committed to promote, assist and facilitate the efficient development of tourism in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ms Armour-Shillingford looks forward to working closely with all industry stakeholders in order to achieve this goal.