Clifton George Reader, OD, doing it for the tourism team

IN THE field of hospitality managers, Clifton George Reader is as five-star as they come.

A 40-year veteran of the industry, Reader, a justice of the peace, and former president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), is currently vice president of Palace Resorts Jamaica and Turks and Caicos Islands, having started with the Mexican company as managing director for Moon Palace Ocho Rios in 2015.

Palace Resorts had bought Sunset Jamaica Grande which Reader had managed for several years and, no doubt impressed by his handling of affairs at one of Jamaica’s largest hotels, offered him the leadership position at the new hotel.

MISPLACED APPLICATION

Prior to that, Reader will tell you that he is in the hospitality industry by chance after his sojourn into medicine was temporarily halted after a misplaced application by the university, where he had applied to study medicine.

He was later accepted, but by then a job at Wyndham Kingston had immediately arisen and he grabbed the opportunity. As fate would have it, he later received a scholarship that allowed him to study at The University of the West Indies and in The Bahamas as he moved up the tourism ladder.

After his studies and then an internship in St Lucia, Reader returned to Jamaica and worked in managerial positions at SuperClubs in Runway Bay, Beaches Negril, Beaches Turks and Caicos, Sandals Royal Bahamian, where he became the first Jamaican to hold the food and beverage manager position at Sandals, and Sunset Jamaica Grande. Today, he remains the longest-serving manager at a foreign-owned hotel in Jamaica.

Now, just months shy of 40 years after that first job as a cashier at Wyndham, Reader said he has no regrets in giving up on medicine in favour of the hospitality sector.

FAVOURITE DESTINATION

On Monday, as Reader collects his Order of Distinction (OD) award for contribution to the development of tourism in Jamaica, he will be standing on the shoulders of the thousands of men and women whose sacrifices have made the industry the country’s number-one foreign exchange earner and Jamaica a favourite destination of millions worldwide.

For the thousands of workers he would have managed over the years, including the hundreds now under his employ at Moon Palace Jamaica, this OD is for them all, he pointed out.

“It’s always one for the team, nothing is ever for me,” Reader told The Gleaner on Wednesday. “It’s for my immediate work team at Moon Palace, those way back from Wyndham Kingston, and all the people who worked with me from then.”

But how does it feel, really, to be awarded an OD for doing something you love?

“When you love what you do, you don’t seem to work a day in your life. It is certainly a great, satisfying feeling.”

It is a richly deserved award for Reader. His integrity, he believes, is what makes him stand out.

“I always try to trust people as much as I can. I speak with people on the same level, nobody’s too small to learn from,” he said.

PROGRESSIVE TOOL

One of the things Reader has learned and wishes to share is that “discipline should be a progressive tool that people can grow from so they don’t make the same mistake twice”. Disciplining someone shouldn’t mean you have to ridicule or shame them, he explained.

And after four decades in the industry, the fire still burns within him.

“You never really call it a day when it’s in your DNA,” Reader said, “One of the things is giving back. After 40 years I have received a lot. As much as I’ve given, I’ve received 10 or a hundred-fold.”

Giving back, through his position as president of the Moon Palace Foundation, the hotel’s charity arm, Reader has seen millions of dollars dispensed in scholarships to students from primary to tertiary levels annually. He is also a member of the advisory committee at UTech, and he works with these two organisations to give back to communities.

Reader also believes that the government should increase its scholarships and internships to benefit people in the tourism sector.