Simone Johnson's Spanish-speaking clients will never be lost in translation, once they hit the shores of The Bahamas.
In May 2010, Johnson started her Spanish tour operating business, Bahamas A Sus Ordenes, after scores of tourists complained to her about how not enough people are able to communicate with them.
Despite being bilingual for more than 20 years, she told Guardian Business in this week's edition of 'Da Plunge' that she only recently discovered that she needed to get creative in order to make the two languages work for her.
"I have noticed that in the last 10 years, we have had a large influx of Latin American visitors, but there was really no company per say concentrating on servicing these visitors," according to Johnson.
"I am also one of the Spanish ambassadors at the airport and of the main complaints is that there are not many people who speak Spanish, whether it is at the hotel or when they go to the restaurants.
"I created this tour business so that we can encourage more people to be creative with their language capabilities, so that the guests will have less to complain about. We have so many products and things to show our guests and language barriers shouldn't be used as an excuse."
She continued, "I have also noticed that the Ministry of Tourism was not really putting an emphasis on persons learning a foreign language, in order to help more foreigners in their own language."
Within the last two weeks alone, Johnson said her firm serviced 12 Argentinians, who were elated to learn about her company.
"I have found that they love to ask questions but they weren't able to ask any at their hotel because no one spoke Spanish. When they came across our service, they were elated. It's been very well-received," she noted.
Johnson pointed out that she acquired training and certification via the Bahamahost program, and expanded her business by hiring 12 part-time employees.
"They assist in doing translations for Spanish guests and act as tour guides for them as well. Altogether there are 15 of us, nine of which are Bahamians. If we want these visitors to come, we can't give them anything to complain about," she said.

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