The Tribune

The Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD’s) entire management team this month took a field trip to the Atlantis resort and spent half a day with their hotel industry peers, discussing tourism trends, current challenges and future prospects for industry growth.

The meeting was the first in a series of cross-training exercises organised by NAD president and chief executive, Vernice Walkine. The goal is to bring leaders from interconnected industries together to share ideas, strategies and best practices.

“The tourism industry is not isolated. LPIA is impacted by what goes on at Atlantis, in our local economy and what’s happening on a global scale,” Ms Walkine explained.

“The thinking behind the meetings was to allow NAD’s leaders to meet with our industry peers to discuss challenges, see problems through other eyes and come up with possible solutions.”

Presenters included George Markantonis, Brookfield Hospitality’s president and managing director, who reminded the group that tourism was a collaborative effort.

He spoke of the inherent responsibility that came with leadership, and shared some of the key success drivers for the company, both employee-based and marketing/promotional activities.

Karen Carey, Atlantis’ senior vice-president of human resources, shared how the resort instilled its core value of ‘Blowing Away The Customer’ to 7,800-plus employees. Through management accountability, training, coaching and setting key targets, Atlantis has been successful.

The NAD team also heard from Raquel Clarke, senior director of Quality Assurance at Atlantis. This presentation proved to be most valuable to the LPIA managers, given that the airport is moving from the construction stage of the development to managing three brand new facilities by year’s end.

Ms Clarke focused specifically on the measurement tools put in place to gauge accountability and maintaining high service levels at the 3,950-room resort.

Atlantis’ vice-president of human resources development, Beverly Saunders, spoke about how managers should avoid viewing training as the solution to all challenges.

She added that what was often needed is for leaders to undertake SWOT, or Needs Analyses, to uncover what was needed for positive team performance.

“We are grateful to the team at Atlantis for taking the time to share with us how they have been able to build and maintain a successful brand,” Ms Walkine said.

“This is not the end of the discussions started here today. In fact, we’ve extended an invitation to Atlantis to visit us at LPIA and see, first hand, how we are working to build ‘No Ordinary Airport’.”