African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality set to change the phase of tourism in Africa
The African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality (AAWTH) has expressed its readiness to change the phase of the tourism and hospitality industry in Ghana and Africa at large. Announcing its presence in Ghana, the organisation also assured the public of its preparedness to create an enabling environment and chances for development for women working in Africa’s tourist hospitality industries.
President and Co-founder of AAWTH, Madam Daphne Spencer who revealed this in an interview recently indicated that AAWTH is an organisation made of female African-descent tourism and hospitality professionals with experience in all sectors of the tourism and hospitality industry. “We are a group of female change-makers and achievers that wish to help and support the growth of the African hospitality and tourism sectors. Our vision is to provide equal opportunities for all women of African descent operating in the hospitality and tourism sector,” she added.
She explained that there was the need to as a matter of urgency ensure the tremendous growth and development of the African hospitality and tourism industry while championing women empowerment. The hospitality specialist commended her colleague and Co-founder of AAWTH, Madam Amaka Amatokwu-Ndekwu for believing in the vision of AAWTH.
Touching on the mission of her outfit, Madam Spencer reiterated that AAWTH focuses on empowering and developing women to occupy senior executive roles in the hospitality industry in Africa by building a community safe to discuss challenges, opportunity, growth, and equity through the provision of advocacy, mentorship, scholarships, education, support, solution, policies and standards of accountability.
The Association’s members, she said include tourism experts and enthusiasts, travel agents and agencies, hoteliers and hospitality organisations among others. Having worked with globally recognized brands such as Walt Disney World, Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton hotels and holding different positions in focused service to luxury hotels, Madam Daphne Spencer is excellent at matching data with expert advice and sharing insight that generates opportunity for growth in hotels.
As a director of sales and marketing, she established a track record of RevPAR index growth through effective revenue management training and strategically designing the hotel’s business mix, ensuring her team’s success. She then moved on to become a National Sales Manager at Hilton, where she contributed multi-millions in revenue annually. During her time away from the hospitality business, she dabbled in finance as a fraud investigator at Discover Card and a successful mortgage broker at JP Morgan Chase. These pauses only served to remind Daphne Spencer of her eternal love for hospitality and travel in general.
Daphne aspires to positively impact women in the Tourism and Hospitality Industries in Africa and AAWTH allows her to do just that and is very excited to embark on this journey with the carefully selected leadership of AAWTH. Daphne Spencer has served in some capacity at AH&LA, MPI, PCMA, ASAE/OSAE & Volunteers of America over the last 15 years while working in various hotels.
