Barefoot Luxury & Bold Leadership with Andia Ravariere of Nevis

What makes a destination unforgettable?

According to Andia Ravariere, CEO of the Nevis Tourism Authority, it starts with authenticity, community, and the courage to truly understand a place's spirit.

In this episode of Business Class, Stephen Ekstrom sits down with Andia for a thoughtful and inspiring conversation about tourism leadership, sustainable destination development, Caribbean collaboration, and the emotional connection travelers build with destinations.

Andia shares her unexpected journey into tourism after pursuing careers in education, fashion, and finance. She explains why tourism and education are deeply connected, how authentic local experiences shape meaningful travel, and why destinations must focus less on visitor volume and more on attracting travelers who align with community values.

The conversation also explores:

•  Community-based tourism development 
•  Sustainable livelihood creation through tourism 
•  Regional collaboration across Caribbean destinations 
•  Fear, leadership, and personal growth 
•  Building destination brands rooted in authenticity 
•  Why Nevis represents “barefoot luxury” and peace 

One of the most powerful moments comes when Andia describes tourism not simply as an economic engine, but as a vehicle for sustainable development and cultural preservation.

If you work in tourism marketing, destination management, tourism training, hospitality leadership, or community development, this episode offers valuable insight into the future of intentional, people-centered tourism. 

Business Class is brought to you by Learn Tourism, the nonprofit academy - harnessing the power of science, business psychology and adult education to advance the tourism industry and build sustainable economies. Learn how to engage your community, win over stakeholders and get more visitors at learntourism.org. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My name is Andere Ravalre. I am originally from the beautiful island of Dominica. Spent most of my life in the beautiful island of Anguilla, and now I am here in Nevis, and I am the CEO of Nevis Tourism Authority.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

What do you love most about your work?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It's tapping into the true spirit and the true energy of the destination that I requested or required to promote and to market. That I believe truly that every single destination has its own uniqueness, has its own distinct identity. And I love actually just tuning in to that spirit, to that energy, to understand exactly what is that unique identity, what is that the thing that makes the destination really and truly distinct. So this is something I really love to do because it's as if the island is speaking to you. It's telling you exactly what it wants to happen to it and for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

If you were to describe Nevis as a personality, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Sophisticated. Absolutely sophisticated in one word. If I have to add a bit more words, I would say elegance. But in the most authentic, in the most raw way, it's truly as if Nevis is this is me. I am elegant, I'm sophisticated, but I'm kind, I'm welcoming, I am full of life, I am a bright spirit, and I want to embrace you. And I want to show you all what is who I am and what is in me. So this in truth and in fact, when I'm describing the character, personality of Nevis, this is Nevis.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

How did you end up working for a destination organization?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I never saw myself entering into tourism, field of tourism at all. Actually, in my upbreeding, my mom was a teacher, and the same streets, my dad, a farmer and a tailor. So I had a love for fashion. At one point, I wanted to become a model, but I entered into teaching, like my mom, I became a lecture, well, uh educator. And next thing I knew, when I did go off to study, I went to study management and with finance as a minor. And I'm sitting here and listening to students having such a blast while I'm here crunching numbers in a calculator. And I went up to them and I asked, what are you guys studying? And they said, international tourism management. And I decided to change my major in tourism. And that's where my career in tourism began. And I had the passion for using tourism as a vehicle for sustainable life development, seeing that I come from a small island developing state. And I went into more product development, community-based tourism development to be specific. And then from there, I went into tourism destination management marketing. And I worked in, moved from Anguilla to Dominica to market, and I was approached for Nevis. And I said, you know what? I'm going to take this opportunity. My role has mainly been in product development. And I just in the year and a half decided to move into more marketing. And now here I am in Nevis.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

That's fascinating. You come from a family with educators.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

You wanted to be an educator.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

How is your job now like being an educator or like education?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

A lot, actually, a lot like being an educator because everyone I meet, I have to educate them about Nevis. So marketing is not just beautiful funfair events and so forth. It has a lot to do with educating. When you are even an individual throughout the funnel to get them into conversion, the last stage is actually information. And so, therefore, everything you actually do in presenting the destination is very much educating individuals to become more aware of the destination and to actually make the decision to visit the island. So I think it's tightly wounded in education, tightly bonded education and marketing. It's similar.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Tell me about one sustainability project that you worked on that you're particularly proud of.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

One sustainable tourism project that I worked on, and I'm particularly, really truly proud of, is the Anguilla Wells Project. So the Anguilla Wells Project seeked to the entire goal was to maintain, well, more like to conserve and preserve the whale heritage in Anguilla. So this is something that meant a lot to the Anguillian people because there's no fresh flowing waters in Anguilla. So individuals were to draw drill wells to get fresh water. And that was actually their heritage. So working along with who is the now Minister of Tourism, Mr. Cadigan Connor, he decided let us start this initiative to identify all the wells in Anguilla and develop a self-guided tour. So you can get on a bike, you can hop on a vehicle and go through the island and learn more about what these wells mean to Anguilla. So the first step of the project was to establish two of these sites, which is located in the West End. And they remain now, and they speak to a lot of, you know, what exactly that well, the well drilling meant for the Anguillian people. And what was so what was really nice about it is that I got to interview quite a bit of older Anguillians who lived in that area, that they could share the stories of walking without shoes in the early mornings, sometimes 10, 20, 30, almost an hour walk to get to these wells where it was it had become so much of a social bonding experience for them because that's where the individual the women would wash their clothes and the men would come and sit. And it's it's it was just very fulfilling to hear that you are actually capturing an era that meant so much to the local people.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

One of the things that we talk about in tourism is how do we give the visitor the experience of feeling like a local?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

And how do you suggest others do that?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

First and foremost, when you are trying to create an experience, this experience hinges on a product. And that product, for it to actually be authentic, that is the only thing that that will truly have individuals connecting and immersing themselves. It's something that is authentic, whether it's it's hinges on the culture, whether it hinges on tradition, it has to be authentic. And the only way you can get the true essence of any product or any experience is to work closely with the locals within the community, whatever it is that you're producing, what it means to them. So I believe in a sound hybrid approach. Information coming from how to do it, but information coming from the bottom to tell you what it means. And when these two come together, you know, creating this hybrid approach, then the product becomes something that is authentic. The product now becomes something that individuals truly want to immerse themselves in. And making, I think what makes it even greater in terms of the experience is if you have the locals being the true individuals who could speak to it, being the ones to present it to your visitors. So if there's a cultural dance, we do not want it to be a facade or something that is put on a stage where you have individuals who cannot truly relate. You want your locals coming in and teaching and bonding and speaking and communicating with your visitors and putting on this amazing dance, and they are learning not just about the dance, but the way and life of the people. And I think this is what actually makes it very authentic. Instead of us or in the Caribbean or destinations on a whole, just putting out things to capture numbers, we need to put out certain things that captures the true desires of our travelers who are now being dog designing travelers, that they want to see us and see who we are and learn more about us and just experience the destination, not as a visitor, but as a local. And the only way you could do that is to ensure that the locals have a say and that they are part of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

How would you define success?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Success as a destination is being able to. So if you're a destination and you are a marketer or destination marketing organization, success for me in tourism would be where we have tapped into the right market. Not, I do not believe that a destination should go after everyone. Cannot be everything to everyone. You have to identify exactly what you are and who you are as a destination. And then from there, you are able to identify your target audience, individuals who would definitely enjoy what it is that you are presenting. And that I believe is success when you are able to tap in to the right market for your right product.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

It's a conversation that I've had with a number of others, and that is the shift from the value visitor to the visitor who shares your community values. Exactly. And that leads to more satisfied visitor experiences, more community engagement, longer stays, greater spend. How do you define success personally?

SPEAKER_00 10:33

For me, personally, is when it comes to I see it as different, not just overall encompassing. For me as a CEO, success in this not only ties into the success of the destination, but ties into the success of my employees. I'm very, very much about not managing individuals, but becoming a leader, someone who sees every employee rather than see the task at hand. That is how I believe, honestly, you are able to maintain a wonderful environment, develop a sound culture where your employees are empowered, where they are valued, where they are seen. For me, that is the ultimate goal. For any CEO, it should be actually the ultimate goal. So that speaks in terms of my career as a CEO and how I would dub success for me personally. For the destination, again, I would say success is actually being able to truly tap into a target audience. Nevis is a boutique luxury destination. It's an amazing destination when it comes to positioning itself as a barefoot luxury destination. The island has everything. So for me, success as a CEO when it comes to marketing the destination would be truly tapping into our right market. We're not about arrival numbers. We are about ensuring that visitors that we target, the visitors who come to Nevis, are able to appreciate the destination, build bonds with our people, understand and value our people and keep coming back. And they now will serve as word of mouth to bring individuals and say this is an amazing destination. The people who are our, for me, our distinct differentiating factor will be the ones that bring these individuals coming in. We want to work with your people. We want to, you know, just experience them and experience their culture. So for me, we are tapping into them and they are in love with us and they want to come back and continually experience us, that for me would also speak to success or what I identify as success.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

One of the things that I think people who work in this industry successfully have in common with visitors is a desire to learn. That's right. What is something you're looking to learn this year?

SPEAKER_00 12:58

I want to learn more concerning how we could foster regional integration. I've always believed that as a region, we are not supposed to be competing, but we're supposed to be working closely together, like collaborating to truly position ourselves, not as an individual, every island as an individual destination, but as the entire region as a destination. So that's a big passion. I believe there is more power in collaboration than competition and division. So for me, I want to learn how that can this can successfully be done. I have started building relationships, my dean, and I, the Nevis government by extension, we have all started working with other destinations like Anguilla and St. Bart's and seeing how we could actually tap into each other's resources. What we don't have, you might have, what you don't have, we might have. How can we honestly work together and put aside competition and truly partner and do multi-destination packages and all of that? I think this year, I really want to understand how this can be successfully done, where the region stands as one destination, where individuals, when we go together to market ourselves, they know that we are coming as a region. I think there is greater power as us identifying exactly what it is that we need to work on to put us forward as a region rather than individual destinations.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

It's interesting that you say that because one of the things that I noticed in education, and this goes back to the start of our organization, was that every association worked in its own silo. That they were overlooking the size of the pie as a whole. Exactly. What is the best piece of advice you've ever gotten?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Don't listen to the noise. But because in trip and in fact, you know, if it's just speaking concerning terms of collaboration, you might find individuals who are in true, like really truly unable to understand that as a destination, you don't have to fight, really fight to get peace of it individually. If we go together, it's you might have a greater say, a greater power. So if you listen to those naysayers that will say it can't happen without coming up with true solutions to whatever it is that we are complaining about, then most probably the passion that you have can get quenched. The vision that you're seeing can disappear. So I feel for me, it's not listening to the noise. Once you see something that you know is gonna serve a greater good, then you push forward and not listen to those who say it cannot happen for whatever reason. So it's always been said the region can never come together. We cannot come together, not even for cricket, we cannot come in, which is one of our you know, big sports, we can't come together for this. This destination is competing. We have the most beautiful island. And why can't we not all have beautiful islands? You know, so once you hear the saying, no, this is gonna happen because no one is gonna buy into this. It's a culture of always us being divided. I'm not gonna listen to that. I'm gonna look at the vision of us and the power that we have together more than hearing those who say it ain't gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

So, what is something that you're doing now to bring other islands together?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Identifying what we have here in Nevis and how things we could pattern with, not just only the destinations, but individuals, stakeholders of other destinations. Well, take, for example, the premiere of Nevis was very intrigued with St. Bart's being able to position themselves as a luxury destination. Everyone, when you think of luxury, think of Saint Bart's. Nevis is also a luxury destination, but very specific in barefoot luxury. So, for example, you cannot really go hiking under the beautiful canopies of natural roulos rainforests in Saint Bards, but you can do this in Nevis. So we then went on an exploration mission in Sands. We started working with the Tourism Bureau there. And they came to visit, we went to visit, and then we realized hey, we could offer day trips or weekend trips or multi-destination trips to those in Nevis and those in St. Bart's. So we started working with property managers there to see, okay, maybe you can partner with this property. You all have similar kind of feel and like when it comes to luxury. So your people could spend two days in St. Bart's and then your people come spend two days in Nevis and vice versa. And so this is where we started with St. Bartz. And this conversation has now moved on to Anguilla. We're speaking about doing a multi-destination golf, amateur golf tournament. We're looking at doing luxury yachting regarda between the three destinations. We've the tourism boards have started discussions and we are hearing each other, hearing what we would like to work on, what we'd like to accomplish, bouncing ideas, each other, things that we could do together. So these are things that started and they are continuing. And we're actually really excited for because 2026 served as the baseline for discussion with hopes of 2027 of us actually implementing certain initiatives to ensure the islands are bonded together rather than trying to compete as luxury destinations. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

The rising tide lifts all boats. Exactly. And Lord knows there's plenty of place to park your boat. That's correct. Not really, really big boat. So um, what's something you wish more people knew about tourism?

SPEAKER_00 19:25

How important it is to the Caribbean regions. I think a lot of people say that, but it has not really sunk in as yet. And I think if it did, we would not focus so much on numbers as governments, but focus more on how we could tap into tourism to develop sustainable livelihoods for our people, to build pride in our people, where they are fostering environments that helps create entrepreneurial activities, where we no longer focused on our people working at a hotel as you know, fixing the beds or the pool guy, but creating an environment for tourism that helps us or see that I am able to own my own business. I am able to tap into this, whether it's a restaurant, whether it's a tour operating business, something. So for me, that is actually it. Really and truly realizing that tourism can serve as a vehicle to so much when it comes to sustainable livelihood development. And that is it. Once we realize this, we are now able to create strategies to tap into that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

What advice would you give your younger self?

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Don't be afraid. And the reason why I say that is as I continue to move through my career, fear always tends to show its head. And fear can be one of the biggest hurdles when it comes to truly leaping at opportunities. I have always been terrified about public speaking. That is something that I had to become if I I could speak very comfortably with individuals, share my opinions and so forth in a small setting. But the minute that the attention becomes you know is on me, I start to shake. And I'm unable to actually, I would tell my younger self at that point, you're gonna you're gonna get opportunities. And if you are unable to overcome your fear, you're gonna lose these opportunities. So I think fear is something that a lot of individuals suffer from. They don't say, but fear of success, because what does that mean for you as an individual? Fear of growing, moving from that person that you were yesterday to the person that you Need to be to acquire what it is that you're sick in. Fear of change, fear of getting up. I have gotten up, left Dominica. I was 19, 20 years old and moved to Anguilla. I think fear could have stopped me because when I wanted to move to another destination, my parents, because of them only knowing Dominica, said no, they were fearful out of fear. And I had to fight that fear, fight their fear to move to Anguilla. And then fear of returning back to Dominica in the last year or so. And then fear moving here to Nevis, what to expect? It's a destination I have no one. I'm moving to this place and I know no one. It's fear can actually prevent you from acquiring so much and achieving so much in life. So I would say to my youngest self, do not be afraid. Because I believe if there was no fear, I would have achieved certain things.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

What did I not ask that you wish I did?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

What's it like living in Nevis?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Please tell me.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

I have lived and worked and traveled through the Caribbean islands, and I like to say that Nevis has bringed so much peace and balance. And I thought I was the only person until I met this lady who recently moved as well to take up a very important role here on the island. And she said the same thing. There is something I cannot put my finger on. It's pure, it's like a pure peace or balance. And I was like, oh my God, finally, someone who kind of understands because individuals who live here are unable to understand what we're speaking about because it's their daily life. But for us coming from other Caribbean islands and moving here and finding this peace, this balance at my age, finally being able to say, I think I have found my peace. I've finally found a balance here that I have not been able to find anywhere else. And it's something about the island. So living here is absolutely amazing. I never locked my doors. I hope this doesn't get out, but I am so at this so comfortable that I have actually left my apartment open because one of the employees I said might want to come here to relax after she has a meeting. And I left it open. I left here at after 10 in the morning, did not return until after 5, and my doors were open. I never locked my vehicle. It's always open. Then you encounter people sometimes I cannot see their faces, but I feel very safe on this island, and I feel very at peace. And that's what it is actually like living here. Just being at peace and safe.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

What is something you'd like to ask me?

SPEAKER_00 24:47

What is your true passion in this life?

SPEAKER_01 24:51

It's a question that I refer to quite often. And when I was younger, I traveled a lot for work. And I love traveling. As I grew older, I realized that the travel experience was about learning. Learning about art, culture, food, nature, science, technology, different destinations, different people. And that became my passion. Learning. Beautiful. It embodies everything that I wanted to make part of the culture of Learn Tourism. And that is that we are a learning organization first and foremost. One of my favorite quotes is Maya Angelou. And I challenge everybody on my team to be better today than they were yesterday. And better tomorrow still. And that only happens if you are continuing to learn.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Very much.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Thank you for that. If folks want to plan a visit to Nevis or get in touch with you, how would they do so?

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Oh, they could. We have an amazing website. It's www.nevis island.com. You could go there, you could plan your entire trip with the proposed itineraries, and you could also contact us via via email and telephone number, which is listed on the website. Also, I encourage individuals to follow us on Nevis Naturally on Instagram and Facebook and Nevis Tourism on Instagram and Facebook for all things Nevis.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Fantastic. I appreciate you, and I look forward to visiting. You got a pin on my man. Oh, I'm in the building. I have no house, I have no apartment, I travel in a very fancy bus.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Just reach out. You've got my contact details. Reach out and we'll make it work.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

You are a delight. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

And thank you for having me.