While the statistics may not be compiled, it would hardly be farfetched to suggest that the majority of homes in Antigua & Barbuda directly benefit from the Hospitality industry. As the country’s main employer and foreign exchange earner, tourism has afforded many people in Antigua with great opportunities and a decent livelihood.
For Antiguan-born Barbara Thomas, now the Senior Executive Assistant Manager at Sandals Barbados Resort & Spa, hospitality was something she experienced at home, from an early age. The “little girl from Wilikies” has worked over a decade at the Grand Pineapple Resort until her recent prestigious promotion to the newest gem in the Sandals crown in the Land of the Flying Fish.
“My mom is a Dominican and in the Caribbean there is this saying that Dominicans are very hospitable,” Barbara said. “In the early days mom always hosted persons at our house and took care of persons within the community; because I was born into it this environment it shaped me.”
She recalls her mother worked three jobs to support the family while her father, who worked as a taxi driver, mostly raised Barbara and her three brothers. She attended the Willikies Primary (which she would later support with the help of the Sandals Foundation), the Pares Secondary and the Human Resources Institute where she trained in Secretarial studies.
Barbara’s life in the Tourism industry began in 1998 as a Public Relations Assistant intern at Sandals Resort Antigua. She spent 11 months there but felt that there was more she wanted to be doing. She moved into the Public Service working at the Prime Minister’s Office where she remained until 2004 when she was to be reassigned to another department in which she had no interest.
Barbara left that job. Raised religious, she said she put her faith in a higher power.
“My personal life motto comes from Jeremiah 29:11, ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’” she recited.
A friend encouraged her to focus more on singing professionally and, indeed, Barbara’s next opportunity did come from singing but at the unlikeliest of places: a funeral.
After hearing her sing at the funeral, the General Manager of Occidental Hotels (the previous owners of Grand Pineapple before Sandals Resorts International acquired the resort) asked to speak with Barbara.
“After meeting with him, he offered me to be a lounge singer for seven days a week at the resort,” she recalled. “When he realised I didn’t have another job he called the HR and told her that he had someone to fill the Guests Services position.”
“A few months after, I received training and later functioned in the weddings department, Tour desk and was promoted to Front Desk Supervisor. After a year I acted as Executive Secretary to the General Manager as the existing Secretary went on to maternity leave. I was again promoted after two years, to Director of Guests Services and Complaint Tracking System Handler in 2009.”
After Sandals Resorts acquired Grand Pineapple, it introduced the award-winning Sandals Foundation to the property and Barbara took up responsibility for managing its projects in the neighbouring Wilikies village. With, as Antiguans would say, her navel-string buried in the community, the role was more of a labour of love.
“I spearheaded projects at the Willikies Primary School which saw a lunch shed and music room built. Music is now a part of the school’s curriculum. Water tanks and spouting have been erected on both levels of the school. In addition, every quarter – care packages were prepared and extended to the elderly or needy under my direction,” Barbara said.
Despite the “subtle charm and warmth,” as she puts it, of Grand Pineapple, Barbara jumped at the amazing opportunity to relocate to Sandals Barbados, which was officially opened a little over a year ago.
There she brings her personal brand of customer service, which she says must be genuine and not something people are taught to do; a gift that comes from deep within.
“My smile is my logo, my personality is my business card, how I leave others feeling after having an experience with me becomes my trademark!” Barbara said of her approach to work.