SVGTA hotel owners’ workshop concludes successfully

A four-day workshop for hotel owners and managers ended here last Thursday, December 1, at the Grenadine House at Kingstown Park.{{more}}

The 37 participants were trained in the area of service delivery.

According to Kathique Haynes, Marketing Officer (North America) with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority (SVGTA), the workshop specifically targeted top management, since they are the ones in a better position to effect change.

Usually, participants at training workshops are junior employees, but it was felt that it was more effective to include managers and owners of small hotels in the country.

Charmaine Sealey, Chief Consultant of Global Travel Solutions and facilitator of the workshop, told SEARCHLIGHT that the primary focus was to get participants more organized and seeing that those present were either owners or managers, to explain the importance of having a strategy.

“And so we worked on a customer service strategy and that would include making sure that there were policies and procedures put in place,” Sealey explained.

This would include also writing the strategy down, so the other members of staff be made aware of the overall objective, she explained further.

“That’s one of the biggest issues, because most of them (top management) know what to do, but … the rest of the staff does not,” Sealey said.

The other focus of the workshop was on areas of leadership, because, according to Sealey, good leadership was very important.

“That is very important, because they have to lead their organization, lead their people and invest in them.”

Meanwhile Glen Beache, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SVGTA, said that workshops such as that which had just concluded were necessary in order that the country becomes a competitive destination.

He, however, said that St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a long way to go, adding that the country was behind some of the neighbouring territories.

This was an advantage, however, according to Beache, as it gave all stakeholders involved in the sector the opportunity to learn from the mistakes made by fellow competitors.

“That goes for all entities: the SVGTA, Ministry of Tourism, hoteliers – whatever stake you have in the industry, we need to make sure that we continue to improve,” he said, adding that persons should always take advantage of all training opportunities made available to them.

He encouraged participants to continue to stay abreast of what was taking place in the industry, as it was constantly changing.

The training workshop was sponsored by Caribbean Development Bank, through the Caribbean Technological Consultancy Services Network and the SVGTA.