The travel and tourism market remains extremely challenging but the Ocean Hotels Group, of which Ocean Two Resort is a member, has been able to rally and offer high value and genuine holiday experiences to guests.
This was revealed by group general manager Patricia Affonso-Dass during the recent second annual staff awards ceremony for Ocean Two Resort, staged on the roof deck of the Dover-based property.
“I am extremely pleased that through the strong and engaged leadership of department heads and all members of the team, we have been able to weather most of the storms over the year and delivered amazing holiday experiences to our guests and achieve growth in both our revenue and occupancy performance,” she said.
Affonso-Dass, also the president of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, said the property had started the year with a strong winter season but softer performances were on the horizon for coming months.
She added that they were seeking to address this projected slow business through increased marketing efforts, looking for new opportunities, nurturing existing relationships and ensuring that the property remained visible.
The general manager also reported that the Ocean Hotels Group – which includes Ocean Two, Sea Breeze and South Beach – will play a key hosting role in two of Barbados’ major tourism marketing initiatives, in collaboration with the BTA. They are the Gimme 5 and Fly programme, staged in June for British travel agents, and Connect Barbados in September.
Paul Collymore, the operations manager of Ocean Two, also addressed the awards ceremony which recognised the outstanding work of the staff complement who helped the property to weather the challenges of 2013.
“It was a challenging year but we managed to turn some of those challenges into opportunities through the extraordinary work of our first class team,” said Collymore.
The operations manager further thanked staff for their contributions and added that through training and employee engagement, the Resort had been able to maintain high levels of guest satisfaction and employee retention.
As a result of its high service standards, Collymore said the Resort consistently received good ratings on TripAdvisor, an international travel website used by customers to gather information and make decisions.
Ocean Two Resort recently received a plaque from TripAdvisor in recognition of being rated one of the top 25 hotels in the Caribbean in 2013. The Resort was also rated the number two hotel on the beach out of 101 hotels considered.
