Winners 2015

Winners Area

Caribbean's Leading Travel Personality 2015

And the winner is...

Honourable Obediah H. Wilchcombe MP

Winner Profile | bs.linkedin.com/in/obediah-wilchcombe-04b868105

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Meet the Winner

This year’s winner was born in November, 1958, in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and educated at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.

His acclaimed media career began at the age of 16, when he joined the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, where he was the youngest reporter employed at the corporation.

He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming deputy director of news in 1985 and director in 1987.

In 1990, he was promoted to assistant general manager.

Entering politics in 1994, he was appointed senator by then prime minister Sir Lynden Pindling.

He was elected chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party in 1995, and following the general elections of 1997, he was once again appointed to the Senate.

In May 2002 he was elected to the House of Assembly as the member of parliament for the West End & Bimini Constituency.

Prime minister Perry Christie appointed him minister of tourism with responsibility for the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas.

During his 2002-2007 tenure as minister of tourism here in the Bahamas, the destination enjoyed record-breaking visitor arrivals and tourism expenditure and had great success with sports, religious, and African American tourism focuses.

He was also responsible for obtaining favoured nation status from China to advance Bahamian tourism with Chinese travellers.

He returned as minister of tourism in 2012 for a new and successful spell. Where he has revitalised the Tourism Industry on Grand Bahama Island and transformed the quaint island of Bimini into a Tourism mecca.