Many Barbados tourism operators will now have a Tourism and Information Awareness Tool at their disposal to assist in adjusting their staff to industry needs for improved performance.
The tool takes the form of an electronic instruction and advice manual on the most current practices in tourism, an industry which itself is to be regarded as an economic enterprise embracing all people resident in Barbados.
Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) vice-president Sue Springer explained that the tool seeks to tackle people’s attitudes and general behaviour that negatively impact service in the industry.
She said it was developed in direct response to a 2009 study on the local industry’s competitiveness, its challenges and solutions.
“A major revelation of the findings was the lack of understanding about the importance of tourism, and one solution identified was that the public should be kept informed to achieve buy-in from the populace,” she said to a gathering of Barbados tourism operators, promoters and image makers at an introduction to the tool at the Accra Beach hotel Wednesday morning.
Noting that the three-year-old study spoke to a solution that lies in a “sound enabling environment, excellent service standards, innovation and differentiation”, Springer also highlighted the report’s findings of poor service ethics, poor training and low productivity that stems primarily from absenteeism.
Consultant May Hinds, whose company developed the tool, said that it is to be used during the first phase of the orientation process for new employees.
But the tool seeks to add to the credo “tourism is everybody’s business” by taking the concept of hosting people on the island home to every Barbadian, making it clear that all are involved.
“They are really guests to our home, Barbados,” Hinds said in introducing the tool.
And this might as well be the case, as tourism is Barbados’ central money earner, accounting for $1.1 billion annually while employing ten per cent of the population, or 12,700 people.
“It means that tourism pays the bills,” Hinds said. (GA)
