Chairman of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI), Shelly Williams said she expected the promotions of Aprille Thomas and Jameela Hollingsworth to lead the organisation in a new direction.
Thomas is the new director of public relations and communications, and Hollingsworth is now director of human resources and corporate services.
“Our Board is really pleased with the healthy mix we have at the BTMI,” Williams said. “We have both seasoned professionals, as well as young, creative minds such as Aprille and Jameela who bring a new energy to the organisation as we seek to remain ahead of the curve in this competitive market.
“I am confident that they will both do well in their new roles and I’m looking forward to the new ideas they will bring to the table.”
Thomas will be responsible for spearheading the organisation’s global public relations and communications strategy across its five main source markets of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.
She will lead on communications programmes to heighten awareness of Barbados as a destination, while working with global media partners to communicate developments in the island’s tourism sector.
Thomas served for five years as public relations and corporate communications manager at the BTMI, where she most recently developed the “Tourism Forward” national public relations campaign to mobilise internal audiences, as the local industry rebounded from COVID-19.
She is also now responsible for the planning of the Barbados Food and Rum Festival, which is scheduled to make a return in 2022 following a two-year hiatus.
Hollingsworth is a highly trained human resource professional, who will now oversee the human resource development of the organisation’s employees both locally and across its four satellite offices. She will develop programmes to recruit and maintain the best talent at the organisation.
Since joining the organisation three years ago as the human resources manager, Hollingsworth has digitised the human resources function to a completely paperless operation and spearheaded the launch of BTMI’s employee engagement and development initiative, BTMI Brilliance.
The appointments took effect from July 1, and both will report directly to chief executive officer, Dr Jens Thraenhart.
(PR/AR)