BHTA shifting focus
A shift in focus and the need to meet the increasing demands of its members has resulted in an ongoing†restructuring at the†Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association.
President Colin Jordan made the disclosure this morning at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the organisation, the National Initiative for Service Excellence and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, for the Hospitality Assured certification programme.
“We are looking at all the services we provide to our membership. Just to give an example, around 2007 when the recession really began to bite, the board of directors almost had an 180 degree change in focus. We spent most of our time looking at marketing initiatives. Before that, we didn’t spend as much time dealing with marketing,” he said at the signing, held at the BHTA’s Belleville, St. Michael headquarters.
“What also happened in 2008 is that the BTA relinquished responsibility for product clubs, and these were the groups that really focussed on … the niches within the market and the BHTA took that on. As a result of this change, in terms of dynamic and where our focus was, we recognised that we had to change to respond … and if we were going to be fulfilling our mandate, and the mandate for our members, we had to adjust…
“[So] we thought we would not do it in an ad hoc kind of way, but in a planned, systematic, well-thought through and executed way, and that’s what we are in the process of doing.”
He said he believed the BHTA secretariat should be at the helm of private sector initiatives to improve the tourism sector, adding: “We are very aware that often people who are asked to serve other people or work with other people because they do not have the tools and the systems within the organisations or at the level that will facilitate the people actually doing the job…”
Earlier in the press conference, Jordan stated that once the restructure was over, the BHTA would also undergo the Hospitality Assured certification. (LW)† (Barbados Today)