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Service with a smile

Miss Hospitality: Cami Bean-Caines. (Photo by Akil Simmons)

Service is what makes Bermuda shine in the international tourism industry.

That’s the opinion of Cami Bean-Caines, 22, who recently won the title of Miss Hospitality in the Miss Bermuda Pageant 2014 held at Fairmont Southampton Hotel on Sunday.

“People come to Bermuda for our service,” she said. “That’s what they really come for and that’s what makes Bermuda stand out.”

Miss Bean-Caines is a young recording artist and hotel employee at the Reefs Hotel and Club. She has been a passionate supporter of the local hospitality industry for several years now, and was elated to win the title.

“I think having the role of Ms Hospitality will help enhance my music career and help my goals in the future because I’m going to be out in the community,” she said.

As Miss Hospitality, Ms Bean-Caines will have to devote four hours per month promoting hospitality through various projects and programmes.

She will interact with children from various schools, speak with tourists at the airport and participate in the Bermuda Day Parade on May 24. Ms Bean-Caines believes these interactions will further her career in hospitality and allow her to promote her music.

While juggling two careers can be overwhelming, the local talent is confident that being immersed in the tourism industry will allow her to do both. “I feel like they go hand in hand,” said Ms Bean-Caines. “It’s very important that I bring ideas to the table and help to attract more tourists to Bermuda.”

Among these ideas, Ms Bean-Caines plans on helping Bermuda to become more technologically advanced and accessible to disabled tourists.

“Years from now, Bermuda is going to be more handicapped accessible and more futuristic. I have faith in our government that Bermuda will move in the right direction.”

Ms Bean-Caines will be working closely with Malika Musson, CEO of the Bermuda Hospitality Institute.

She praised Ms Musson for her role in the community and called her “someone I look up to and I know that I can learn a lot from”.

Ms Bean-Caines’ grandmother, Colette Lundy, has also inspired her.

“She’s not just my grandmother, she’s my mentor and she helps me every step of the way,” she said.

Having studied Hospitality Management, Ms Bean-Caines credits her Bermuda College education for her interests. She believes you must learn the “ins and outs” of the industry in order to run a good business.

She explained her attraction to hospitality, saying: “It’s an industry where you can work your way up.” Despite describing herself as “kind of shy,” Ms Bean-Caines expressed her favourite part of her job as a front desk and concierge agent at the Reefs Hotel and Club as “working with the guests daily”.

“I love turning the negatives into positives,” she said. “When guests come in with a problem I love to change the problem around and watch them leave smiling and feeling satisfied.”

Ms Bean-Caines believes that her future in hospitality, her music career and her personality will allow her to be good role model for Bermuda’s youth.

“I feel that I’m both confident and congenial,” she added.