A nice job in a luxury hotel on a tropical island: it is the dream of many a professional in the hospitality sector. For Jeaniré Rampart, it is a daily occurrence. After gaining the necessary work experience in the Netherlands, she found her niche as Human Resources Manager at The Ritz-Carlton on her home island of Aruba. Her profession brings its challenges. "Finding suitable staff here is even more difficult than in the Netherlands," she says.
Born and raised in touristy Aruba, Jeaniré soon fell under the spell of the hotel industry. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Aruba, she had the opportunity to do a snorkelling internship at the Ritz-Carlton, part of Marriott International. "There I discovered my preference for Human Resource Management, after which I got a permanent job as HR coordinator at another hotel - the Aruba Marriott," says Rampart, who, however, had ambitions to develop further. "Therefore, I went to the Netherlands in 2019 to pursue a masters degree in Human Resources at Tilburg University. I then worked at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel for a year and a half from the end of 2021, before returning to Aruba in 2023."
With so much experience in the international hotel business under her belt, Rampart can compare the differences between Aruba and the Netherlands like no other. "When I first arrived in Tilburg, it was a real culture shock for me," she says with a big smile. "Here in Aruba people are a bit warmer and there is more togetherness, while in the Netherlands people are generally a bit more on their own. And in the Netherlands, for example, you'd better not be late for an appointment either, haha."
However, anyone who now thinks that working in ever-sunny Aruba is just 'freedom happy' is wrong. "On the contrary, the work ethic here is stronger than in the Netherlands," Rampart knows. "Where in the Netherlands many people work part-time, here a working week of 40 hours or more is the norm. In that respect, there is much more attention to a healthy work-life balance in the Netherlands. In Aruba, you do see now that the younger generation in particular is also starting to find this increasingly important."
For now, as Human Resources Manager of the luxurious The Ritz-Carlton with its three hundred and twenty rooms, Jeaniré also often makes long working weeks. A big challenge in this regard is keeping staff levels up. "Our hotel employs about six hundred permanent staff, in addition we use a lot of temporary workers. But here we suffer from staff shortages as much as in the Netherlands. What makes it extra difficult is that - to work in Aruba - you need the right papers and a work permit. This also applies to residents of the Netherlands, Curaçao and Bonaire, which, like Aruba, belong to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In contrast, at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel where I worked, it was much easier to recruit employees from other European countries."
In Aruba, an island the size of Texel and where it is always summer, Rampart feels like a fish out of water. "Don't get me wrong, in the Netherlands I learnt a lot. I also really enjoyed being able to use all four languages I speak - Dutch, Spanish, English and Papiamento - in Amsterdam with its strongly international audience. But when you wake up in the morning and see that your car is under a thick layer of snow, you still start to long for sun-drenched Aruba again."
In Amsterdam, Rampart welcomed hotel guests from all over the world, but at The Ritz-Carlton, it is mostly American tourists who predominate. She does have an explanation for this. "Traditionally, Dutch tourists tend to go to Curaçao with its predominantly Dutch culture. But Aruba has more of an American culture. The American tourist is friendly, but demanding. But that is allowed when you pay hundreds of dollars for an overnight stay. They just want to enjoy their holidays, and for that you have come to the right place!"