Kendall Flake
As the third week has ended, this island feels like a home rather than a destination.
We started off this week with an excursion that I will never forget, riding some adorable island horses at sunset. It is a memory that will stick with me forever. It was fun and informative as the guide told us facts about the island while riding his horse backward. He talked to us about how they keep the horses healthy and the difference with the crowds during peak seasons and even got to see some of the newborn horses that will soon become large contributors to tourism on the island.
The week did not get boring after that as the next day we took learning out on the water with a Rhino excursion. And no, I am not talking about a real rhino. The rhinos are a combination of a dingy boat and a jet ski and most importantly really fun to drive. We rode them up to the French side of the island and took a break to do some snorkeling. When we were done swimming with the fish we headed back, most everyone through the rhino into full throttle but MK and I got distracted looking at some of the huge houses on the island but caught back up eventually. Overall class was a big hit!
But don’t worry we did also learn a lot this week, working with Sprinklr software. What I found most interesting was talking about the aspect of crisis management. As to how to set up and detect when a crisis is going to occur, but also being prepared and having an effective plan in place. When I usually thought of crisis public relations and communications, I thought more of a company's spokesperson leaking out bad information or bad press with a CEO. But never in the way of a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, like the one that hit St. Maarten in 2017. And looking to see through a tourism lens how to recover and start generating more travel back to the island.
We did have some more fun later in the week as once again we took the class to the water but this time on a catamaran, with an island tour and snorkeling, and yes it did also have a slide! That was my favorite part. Seeing the island from the water is such a cool viewpoint and different perspective. We even jumped off and got to swim into lunch and a friendly sea turtle came to show off how beautiful he was as we ate. When we made the swim back to the boat, I talked with one of the crew members about how much tourism traffic flows through these day sails and was not surprised when she said they always have people coming, especially families as the kids, like me, also love the slide and jumping off the boat.
When I first signed up for this trip, I was unsure of how the class would mix with really seeing the island, and then how getting to know the island would help us build our public relations campaign. But the more time I spend here, class is not just within the four walls at the hotel but rather blends in with gaining a professional lends when going through daily activities and being able to look at things as a public relations professional would.
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