Jones Junior Minister of Tourism 2016

The Head Girl of the Deighton Griffith School, Rashana Jones beat out seven other students to capture the coveted prize of Junior Minister of Tourism 2016.

Speaking with the Barbados Advocate after the top three were announced, Jones said that it was a lot of work including many weekends and sleepless nights, but it all paid out in the end.

 

There was also a lot of research involved which her parents helped with and she is thankful to them for their support.

These sentiments were echoed by second place winner, Neshan Weekes of The St. Michael School who said that is was also hectic for him because he had a lot of other things going on that week.

 

He had one member of the Toastmasters work with him, a lot of “late nights training in the mirror with the light on.”

 

The third place winner Markeisha Carter of Springer Memorial School, started off by thanking God for her success and said that also had a whole host of other things going on such as completing assignments for other classes and she had to balance her time between this and preparing for the speech.

 

Jones chose to speak on the first topic of ‘Voluntourism,’ where she touched on helping out with the sea turtles project. ‘Volunteer, Explore, Connect,” where the visitors come and volunteer, explore the island and connect with Barbadians and then bring back family and friends the next time around.

 

Weekes did the second topic ‘Attracting the Youth Traveller,’ where he spoke about creating a Barbadian theme park called ‘Skylarking” and also spoke about the bringing back zip lining, the latter of which he chose to bring back because “it is an amazing product and we can add so much of our Bajan culture to it.”

 

Cater also choose the second topic where she spoke about culture tourism and eco-tourism as well as the need to bring back the Congaline festival.

 

It was no surprise to the audience that these students captured the top three spots because in both rounds, they displayed confidence in addition to their good ideas.

Jones said that she was well prepared so this helped somewhat with her confidence and then she just channelled her nervousness into enthusiasm while Weeks and Carter attributed their confidence to God with Cater also giving credit to her teacher and classmates.

 

Jones advised those intending to participate in the competition in 2017 to do their best, continue to pursue the excellence of the competition and focus more on “being a champion for the youth” rather than on the prizes.

 

Weekes advised them to put their best foot forward and if they plan to achieve, then they must be prepared to work hard while Carter advised them to gain as much knowledge about the tourism sector as possible and maintain their confidence at all times as this is an important factor in succeeding in the competition.

Jones is hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner, Chloe Walker and capture the regional title as well. She is also looking forward to all of the experiences that she would gain under this title and using the knowledge for her future development.