Saint Lucian born Kelly Fontenelle, the CEO of St Kitts Tourism Authority has been named Tourism Executive of the Year by Caribbean Journal.
“Kelly Fontenelle keeps pushing that growth forward — with targeted promotion, strategic travel and an impressive push to put St Kitts top of mind for the global travel trade,” the journal went on to say.
In an interview with St. Lucia Times, Fontenelle said, “This was a really nice honour and this is not just an honour for me, because it has been a team effort. Behind me there is a fantastic team… the Minister for Tourism Marsha Henderson who is very influential in what we do and we have a wonderful board of directors. So the entire team is part of this honour and has to take a bow for this award.”
When asked what made a difference for tourism in St. Kitts in 2025, she said: “We had a lot more visibility. We increased our advertising in areas we hadn’t done before, we also had a partnership with Cole Palmer (an English football player) and that went a long way and we also increased our travel advisors. So I think those three things really helped to push us up a little further than where we were.”
Fontenelle, originally from the south of Saint Lucia, was appointed CEO in 2024.
She originally served as Director of Marketing for the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA), USA where she is recognised as playing a fundamental role in developing the Saint Lucia Expert (SLEx) loyalty programme. This is said to have resulted in vast growth for brand agents in less than five years. Fontenelle is also credited for developing the Romance Specialist Programme for Saint Lucia and was instrumental in the creation of the diaspora program. She is the founder of Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean, renowned as the foremost Caribbean travel advisory company.
Caribbean Journal launched the Caribbean Travel Awards in 2014 as the “world’s premier celebration of Caribbean travel, showcasing the greatest places to stay, the best places to eat and drink, the best ways to enjoy the Caribbean and, most importantly, the people who work every day to make this region what it is.”
