Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty tendered her resignation Monday, saying she will serve until Dec. 27. Nicholson-Doty is the only top cabinet member of Gov. Kenneth Mapp who also served in the same post in the previous administration of Gov. John deJongh Jr.
Most V.I. government department heads are likely to depart between now and the first weeks of the incoming administration of Goveror-elect Albert Bryan Jr. in January. Attorney General Claude Walker recently left too.
“I would like to thank both Governor Mapp for the confidence he placed in me, and Governor John P. de Jongh Jr., who first appointed me to this position over a decade ago. Equally important, I owe a debt of gratitude to the people of the Virgin Islands for allowing me to serve our territory,” Nicholson-Doty
said in a statement about the move.
She said the Department of Tourism is finalizing a comprehensive transition document to share with the incoming Administration’s transition team.
“I stand ready to assist to ensure there is a smooth passing of the baton to the new leadership of the Department of Tourism,” she said.
Before joining the deJongh administration, Nicholson-Doty spent almost 14 years at the helm of the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel & Tourism Association, where she served many of those years as executive director.
Nicholson-Doty was selected as Executive Director of the Year in 2000 by the Caribbean Hotel Association. She served three consecutive terms as vice president of the Caribbean Society of Hotel Association Executives, a position that is voted on by her counterparts in the Caribbean region.