ESHER, Hanover – Global Villa Hotel, a community-based property in Esher, Hanover, is in expansion mode. It has grown from an original nine rooms opened to guests in 1999 to 14, and the focus is now on health and wellness.

“We are moving upward and forward and we intend to have additional rooms. We are working right now on the spa because we have the swimming pool… coming back to take a full circle hoping to have hair and all that. So, you can book in and have your total treatment from head to toe; eat, refresh and swim and that’s where we are looking: health and wellness,” said an optimistic proprietor and operator Gloria Spence.

She was speaking with the Jamaica Observer last Friday after the official unveiling of the spruced up hotel.

“We have upgraded the property to include a swimming pool, a conference centre and rooms above the conference centre because we do a lot of seminars, weddings, etc. So yes, we are growing and I hope one day to pass this legacy to my children and hope that they too will follow my footsteps and build on the legacy,” added Spence.

She is a Jamaican who migrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s when she was just a girl. She was educated there and has a degree in social science as well as certification in cosmetology, health and wellness. She has left her mark in both the land of her birth and the UK where she lived for decades.

In 1996 she was the recipient of the Industrial Awards for her work in the field of education in the UK. In Jamaica, she was a Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) trainer as well as the western region’s first trainee-turned-trainer in conflict resolution.

Spence’s journey as a hotelier began with a suggestion by her mother — who returned to Jamaica from the UK and started building houses — that she should buy land in the Caribbean country.

Spence resisted because at that time she had no intention of returning to Jamaica to live.

Her mother pushed her to look ahead to the future when she had finished climbing the corporate ladder in the UK. She encouraged Spence to send her savings to her, saying she would build her a home before the prices of construction material went sky high beyond her reach. Spence agreed out of respect for her mother and was shocked to see the spacious house built for her a few years later.

“I said, ‘Mommy, what have you done?’ She built me a nine-bedroom house. I only have two children and even if I sleep in one room every night, I will never finish it at the end of the week,” chuckled Spence. “My mother turned to me and said, ‘Never mind, I got a plan, Gloria’.”

Spence said when she next returned to Jamaica, the Northern Coastal Highway was being constructed and the house was filled with guests. That was when she decided to get involved by utilising her skills and getting the property certified. It has not been easy running the business over the years.

“We have managed to keep going because of determination, just being consistent and having a lot of love,” she told Observer West.

She offered some advice to her fellow Jamaicans.

“We want to emulate the European, the Canadian and the English but your roots are here in Jamaica. It is a beautiful country and we need to all recognise that and do whatever we can to help grow Jamaica,” she urged.

“The tourism industry is growing enormously in Hanover and we can all benefit from that,” she added, encouraging others to get involved

She pointed to the Lucea Skills Training Centre which works closely with her property. The training centre provides hospitality training to young people in western Jamaica.

“Global Villa is my way of giving back to Hanover and, to Jamaica as a whole,” said Spence.