Having worked with globally recognizable brands such as Walt Disney World, Hyatt, Marriott & Hilton Hotels, holding different positions in focused service to luxury hotels, Daphne is excellent at matching data with expert advice and sharing insight that generates opportunities 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 plan, leading with transparency, and 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.
At Micros Systems Inc., She traveled between the US and Canada installing hotel systems and training hotel associates and managers on systems use. Undoubtedly, those were such incredible years, seeing coast to coast of North America and touching about 49 hotels over the years. Daphne did hotel system installs for newly built, converted hotels, system upgrades from legacy products and even de-flagging systems in some hotels.
During her time away from the hospitality business, she dabbled in finance as a fraud investigator at Discover Card and as a successful mortgage broker at J P Morgan Chase. These pauses only served to remind Daphne of her eternal love for hospitality and travel in general. Daphne is quickly establishing herself as an asset to Africa’s tourism and hospitality industries through business consulting, speaking engagement on government policies directly impacting the private sector, project management, training, workshops, coaching and mentoring.
Now, Daphne resides and works in Ghana as an independent consultant for two major companies. Alongside running affairs at AAWTH as the co-founder and President with a presence in about 15 countries across the continent of Africa and growing.
The global tourism scene is witnessing a significant change and growth in its ecosystem as with every other industry. Without a doubt, the presence of women has been instrumental in changing the narratives of national socio-economic policies across the globe, including the growth of hospitality and tourism in Africa.
In Africa, more women are answering the call to public service at all levels of government. The ability to balance assertiveness and empathy creates an effective leader and women have been identified as carriers of the inner strength required to handle these very essential leadership roles as well and therefore should be granted a seat at the table.
Reshaping the narratives and staking a claim as a powerful force to consolidate representation in the industry, CEO Pyne Hospitality Company; Amaka Amatokwu-Ndekwu and CEO of Hospitality Amplified LLC (USA); Daphne Spencer established the “African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality” (AAWTH), a community of female change-makers and achievers on a mission to assist and support the African hospitality and tourism industry.
The organization houses professional women of African descent working in all aspects of the tourism and hospitality industries. Serving as a hub, AAWTH is a driving force in the tourism and hospitality industries, to advocate for female leaders with a vision to foster equal opportunities for all women of African descent operating in hospitality and tourism.
“AAWTH offers its network of women a safe space to be as expressive as they want, to learn, grow and go as far as they desire”. Say’s Daphne Spencer, Co-Founder & President at AAWTH.
AAWTH is launching and unveiling its Upskill Her Africa Initiative to accomplish this goal. Between 2022 and 2023, this initiative aims to empower 2500 women. This program develops senior/c-suite executives through its AAWTH High Impact Leadership program, as well as young students through its AAWTH Student Development program, budding entrepreneurs through its AAWTH Accelerator program, and young professionals through its Lean on Me mentorship program.
Membership for the African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality includes but is not limited to: Tourism experts & enthusiasts’ travel agents, tour operators, hospitality professionals & enthusiasts, hoteliers, hotel owners, Tourism & Hospitality Agencies & groups, Hospitality organizations, Government officials, Student’s vendors/ Service providers etc.
Some of the ways the AAWTH serves its members is by lobbying for favorable policies that affect the overall wellness and productivity of the Tourism and hospitality industry such as setting basic standards of for job qualification within the industry.
The body also ensures the formulation of training guidelines for specific sectors, working with business owners on the relevance of investing and budgeting properly for employee development programs while quantifying the returns on their investments.
As a fast-paced and constantly evolving industry with a workforce that cuts across generations, races and cultural backgrounds, the hospitality and Tourism industry requires leaders to be at the forefront of the rigorous demands. The African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality seeks to empower a dynamic community, developing and sustaining its goals of bringing numerous economic value and benefits to the African Tourism ecosystem.
African Association of Women in Tourism and Hospitality was established with the sole aim of fostering equal opportunities for all women of African descent operating in hospitality & tourism.
Our Mission is to empower, promote and develop women to occupy key roles in the hospitality & tourism industry in Africa. Building a community that is safe to discuss challenges, opportunities, growth, and equity by providing tools, advocacy, mentorship, scholarships, education, support, solutions, policies, and standards of accountability.
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