A CedarBridge student beat competitors from all over the Caribbean to scoop the top prize at a major tourism summit.

Zahara Muhammad, 17, was declared the winner after her tourism presentation at the Youth Congress at the Caribbean Tourism Organisation conference in Freeport, Bahamas, last week.

Zahara attended the conference as Bermuda's representative along with Keishon Ming, 11, who took part in an essay competition sponsored by Conde Nast Travel.

He wrote the essay two years ago when he was nine, but the competition was cancelled last year because of September 11.

In it he wrote of where he would tell a tourist to visit if they came to Bermuda.

As well as winning a lap top computer and $1,000 for herself, Zahara scooped $1,000 for her school. She has also represented Bermuda in Singapore and South Africa.

But her future doesn't lie with tourism, she wants to attend St. George's University in Grenada, to become a paediatrician.

The aim of the Youth Congress is to create a greater awareness and among young people in the Caribbean and encourage them to research a variety of issues that are relevant to the tourism, and to offer their ideas on the future direction of tourism in the Caribbean region. A Department of Tourism spokesman said: "We are pleased to be associated with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation as it affords young Bermudians cultural and educational opportunities with their contemporaries in the Caribbean.