THE Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) Environmental Committee will be focusing its efforts on training and increasing awareness in areas such as health, food safety, water management, waste management and the fight against Sargassum seaweed, over the next few months.
Word of this came from new chairman of the committee, Davina Layne, who explained that they have already been actively involved in the Sargassum fight, working closely with the National Conservation Commission and other private sector organisations.
“Over the next few months we plan to continue this work in addition to providing training for our members on vector borne diseases, food safety, appropriate practices for hotels connected to the Municipal Sewage Treatment Plant, waste management, eco-purchasing and the global harmonisation system for the management of chemicals.
“We will also be looking at garnering hotelier buy-in for the designation of Carlisle Bay as a marine protected area, promoting appropriate practices amongst tourists and operators when interacting with turtles, increasing awareness on water scarcity and managing water consumption and restarting the green teams at member hotels,,” explained Layne, who has over 14 years’ experience in the fields of tourism, human resources and environmental management.
She explained that the work planned is extremely important to the membership as it helps them to maintain excellent standards and individually contribute to the overall quality of the tourism product.
Layne, whose work has spanned Barbados, CARICOM and England, completed studies in Tourism, Environment and Development (M.A), Sustainable Environmental Development with Management Studies (Postgraduate Diploma) and Tourism Management (BSc.)
In the past she has worked as the membership relations and environmental officer for the BHTA leading their environmental programme as well as the environmental officer at a local hotel. She has trained a wide cross section of employees and managers in the hospitality sector in Barbados in sustainable tourism and environmental management and has also played an integral role in educating Barbadian primary school students about climate change and its effects.
Layne is currently a sustainable tourism consultant with the Caribbean Tourism Organization. (PR)
