Hampden Clarke was given the BHTA Bravery Award when his quick actions saved the lives of 31 adults and two children when the brakes of a tour bus he was driving failed. He received the award from Sales and Marketing Officer of Bougainvillea Hotel, Jamal Griffith.
Speak up or be quiet!
PAST Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA), Roseanne Myers, is encouraging industry professionals to speak
out when they have the opportunity to express concerns about the hotel industry rather than grumble on the sidelines.
During her farewell speech at the BHTA’s annual awards ceremony, which was held at the Sandals Royal on Saturday night, she said: “We implore you not to sit on the sidelines and complain about what somebody should be doing for you. Jump in the middle, make your voice heard, make your opinions heard and step forward. Too many times we have meetings, we have sessions and after the session people want to whisper and tell you all of the phenomenal information that they have in their head.”
“And I am saying to myself smiling – ‘Just shut up! You had your chance, shut up!’; because you have wasted a lot of people’s energy that are doing things and are looking for your input. So I really implore you,” she said.
Myers, who is now the Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., lauded the awards, which she noted spans approximately
two decades. “It is extremely important, especially when we are fighting internationally for our existence, to ensure that we maintain the kind of standards that would allow us to fight that battle and come out on the winning side.”
She told the audience that she is most happy when she reads the positive comments on Trip Advisor about guest experiences on the island. “It is not an easy industry to be in. The cost of doing business is not necessarily the lowest that it could be, but at the end of the day you see people put their best out, to keep the training of the staff up, to keep the infrastructure looking the way it should. That is why we are here today,” she said.
This year, in addition to the traditional awards, two new awards were added to the prestigious ceremony. The Social Responsibility Award, which was presented to the Yellow Bird Hotel and the Agricultural Linkages Award which was presented to Cobblers Cove.
The two Lifetime Achievement awardees Anthony Pickering of Hotel Food Supplies (Barbados) Inc. and Cynthia O’Hara of Coral Reef Club and Sandpiper were also inducted into the BHTA’s Hall of Fame, which was launched last year. (JH)