In her early years as a student at Harrison College, Josea Browne aspired to be another Christiane Amanpour, influenced by the interview and broadcasting skills of the internationally-recognised British-Iranian journalist and CNN television host.
Her burning desire was “to be in the broadcast business”.
That was until when she reached sixth form and “woke up and did not want to do it anymore. But did not have any inclination about what it was that I wanted to do”.
Meanwhile, among her peers, there was the pressure from those constantly enquiring about her plans for the future.
“Everyday someone would ask me ‘What are you going to do; what are you going to do?’” “I just kicked back and said I’m going to work in tourism, just to shut people up.”
With exams approaching, a decision had to be made.
“I thought I might actually have to do this thing because I didn’t make any other plans; I hadn’t applied to any school; I hadn’t done anything.”
She ended up going to the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus for a year to study linguistics and Spanish as a double major, “because I hadn’t made any plans for my future”.
It was the first step into the field of tourism and the beginning of the career that today sees the Barbadian tourism consultant, business development strategist and revenue manager travelling the Caribbean, advising businesses in the sector in several areas.
She laid the foundation, going from UWI Cave Hill to Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism
Management at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metro University) in Canada to study hospitality and tourism management.
The university programme was one of the Four Seasons Hotel’s programmes and, like so many other students, she got the opportunity to work at Four Seasons Hotel as an intern, in keeping with the school’s requirement that students complete 16 hours of work experience.
Working in the Four Seasons Central Reservations Office in Toronto, the company’s worldwide reservations office, placed her in a position to handle calls from all over the world, making reservations for Four Seasons properties globally.
Twenty-five years later, she is steeped in a career with many facets, resulting from her early resolve to get as much experience as possible.
An outbreak of SARS in Canada forced her to return to Barbados and join the hospitality sector here.
“There were no jobs in Toronto but Fairmont was also Canadian, so they came to recruit and Fairmont, which was still part of CP at the time, asked me what geographical preference I had. I said I’ll work in Barbados, so they sent me home to work on their management training programme.
“I came home at Fairmont Royal Pavilion and my general manager took me under his wing and said, ‘I’m going to teach you local management 101. I’ve been very lucky to have a series of great bosses who’ve always invested in me.”
From Fairmont Royal Pavilion, she moved to Mango Bay Group under the management of veteran hotelier Peter Odle for five years.
“He would loan me out to help other small hotels, sending me everywhere to help everybody.”
She welcomed the experience, recognising it could only serve to enhance her knowledge and exposure.
The journey continued to Hilton Barbados, first as revenue manager and eventually as director of business development.
Next, she was taken on board by Expedia, a popular online travel agency that allows users to book flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and vacation packages that is owned by Expedia Group Inc., an American travel technology company, as that company’s market manager, to handle Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, as well as Barbados.
“We ended up with Barbados at the end of it,” Josea said.
Wide experience
The wide experience and exposure to different aspects of the hotel now informs the operation of the private consultancy she owns and operates.
Speaking to the Sunday Sun at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Antigua last week, the Barbadian tourism consultant shared: “I am a hotel revenue manager – covering the hotel economy, supply, demand, pricing, those types of things – so I consult on anything tourism-related. I work with small properties to help smaller properties learn the business of the business because what we’re lacking at home is a lot of science behind it.”
She added: “We’re very emotional in our decisions and the way that we do things . . . Sometimes we can be a little bit more reactive in our approach to things, as opposed to looking forward and being a lot more proactive . . . . It’s about training a lot of smaller properties in how to follow these trends and to pay attention to what’s going on.”
She is also currently working on a project in Dominica, in collaboration
with that country’s Minister of Tourism “to help with the development of packages for their properties”, doing “a lot of one-on-one training with all of their hotels to make sure they understand how a lot of the distribution systems work and some of the things to look at, because they’re a burgeoning tourism destination right now.”
Seeking enhancement
Through her consultancy, the Ministry of Tourism and Discover Dominica Authority are seeking to enhance that country’s accommodation sector through the initiative labelled The Package Development Consultancy, designed to improve competitiveness, guest experiences, and operational efficiency across Dominica’s hotel properties.
That assignment has seen her commuting between Dominica and Barbados where she continues to work on the Book Barbados imaging project for the destination. Her consultancy has also recently partnered with the Intimate Hotels of Barbados to be the booking engine for their platform.
Conscious of the benefits of tourism to the economy, Josea believes young Barbadians should be encouraged to look beyond the traditional careers in the industry and to recognise there are many other job opportunities available.
“The first thing that people think about is the restaurant and the front desk. We often forget that there is a lot of business behind tourism and as the largest foreign earner, we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting people at all levels of expertise.”
She added the population must also be sensitised to the value of tourism and encouraged to embrace it by seeing themselves as a part. (GC)
The post Josea making tourism waves appeared first on nationnews.com.
