Service with a Smile
A training programme designed by e-volunteer Anna Stevens is intended to lift the tourism profile of Kiribati, ensuring everyone who visits is treated with warmth, care, and kindness.
Jiggling a seven-week-old baby on her hip, Anna Stevens is reflecting on her time with VSA as an e-volunteer to Kiribati – a role she plans to reprise in 2023. “I went from absolutely zero knowledge of Kiribati – I didn’t even know how to say the name of the country – to developing a really great understanding of the people and the culture, as well as a greater respect for what Kiribati is up against in terms of climate and financial impacts,” she tells.
Anna – who is currently taking time out from her role as a Programme Manager, tasked with developing learning offerings for the Foodstuffs North Island team, to raise little Orlagh - says she’s volunteered all her adult life.
So when VSA reached out to ask if she’d like to help the Tourism Authority of Kiribati tailor a training programme that would upskill frontline staff in the small Pacific nation, she was excited to jump on board. “It was such a cool opportunity to learn,” Anna, who is also a former trainer at the New Zealand School of Tourism, continues. “I was studying towards a Masters last year and had a bit of extra capacity, and e-volunteering sounded like something I could fit in around my other commitments.”
Originally from Rotorua, Anna says she wonders if it was growing up smack bang in the middle of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most popular visitor hotspots that sparked a passion for hospitality and tourism. “I always loved how global those two industries are – that idea that you can work in Auckland, or Sydney, or Sao Paulo, and meet people from very different backgrounds and cultures.”
For seven months, Anna worked closely (yet remotely) with Petero Manufolau, the CEO of the Tourism Authority and the organisation’s Training & Development Division, to shape and develop The Mauri Way – a programme that encapsulates the special warmth and family-oriented hospitality that is unique to Kiribati.
The Mauri Way (‘Mauri’ means ‘hello’) represents good etiquette, superior communication, attention to detail, proactiveness, empathy and excellent service, says Petero explains how the 2019 Kiribati International Visitor Survey had uncovered insights that showed how closely related a high rating for accommodation was to a high level of customer service. “Conversely, hotels that scored poorly were noted as having low customer service,” he says.
The Mauri Way was conceived of to help those in the tourism industry understand how to harness their own beautiful culture, providing excellent service and lifting the profile of tourism to Kiribati overall.
While the programme was written during Anna’s first seven months assignment and is now ready to roll out, the new mum says she needs just a few more months this year to ensure its implementation runs smoothly. “If there’s a challenge ahead of me, it’s possibly not being on the ground to train the trainers,” she says. “I’m really excited, though, that the work we do together might encourage more Kiwis to visit Kiribati, just as they already do Samoa and Fiji and Tonga.
“It’s been a proud moment to have designed something from scratch – starting with nothing and ending up with something we hope will really make a difference to Kiribati. That’s been very fulfilling.”
Published in Vista during June 2023