Photo: World Travel & Tourism Council / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Caribbean Media Exchange will recognise Jamaican hotelier Josef Forstmayr for a career that has helped shape regional tourism leadership and advocacy.
December recognition
Forstmayr, managing director of Round Hill Hotel and Villas in Hanover, Jamaica, is to be honoured as a 2026 Leadership Laureate at the Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) Leadership Awards and Fundraiser.
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The event is scheduled for Sunday 6 December at the Loews Coral Gables Hotel in the Miami area. CMEx said proceeds will support education, youth development and professional-training programmes aimed at emerging Caribbean tourism and media leaders.
The recognition places a longstanding Jamaica-based hospitality executive among a wider group being celebrated for service across tourism, media and Caribbean development.
A career rooted in Jamaica
Forstmayr has led Round Hill since 1989, after earlier management roles at Coconut Cove in Negril, Tryall Golf and Beach Hotel, and Trident Villas and Hotel in Port Antonio.
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His regional influence also extends beyond one resort. The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association lists him as its president from 2010 to 2012, a period in which he promoted the organisation’s ‘Tourism Is Key’ campaign and argued for tourism to receive stronger public and policy support.
He remains a director of the Jamaica Tourist Board, according to Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism. The board is responsible for destination marketing, tourism data and support for the sector’s wider development.
Why it matters
For Black Caribbean communities, tourism is not simply a visitor industry: it is a major source of employment, entrepreneurship, foreign exchange and cultural visibility. The leadership choices made by major hotels, boards and regional industry bodies affect whether benefits reach local farmers, producers, workers and creative businesses.
Forstmayr has been a public advocate for stronger links between tourism and Caribbean-made goods, including food, drink and agricultural products. That approach speaks to a central regional question: how to ensure visitor spending circulates more deeply through local economies rather than remaining concentrated in imported supplies and offshore interests.
CMEx’s awards programme also links tourism with media and community development, reflecting the need for Caribbean voices to help define how the region is marketed and how its growth is measured.
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Forstmayr previously received Jamaica’s Order of Distinction at officer rank for service to the tourism industry. His forthcoming CMEx recognition highlights a career spanning nearly five decades in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean hospitality sector.