Meet Duane Phillips | Hospitality Professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with Duane Phillips and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Duane, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a Tourism and Hospitality professional living in Kingston, I have a deep rooted love and appreciation for my island Jamaica. Over the years it has been a hobby of mine to travel across the island; whether going to a new event, visiting a river or beach in the countryside, or simply just discovering a new restaurant. Usually, I catalogued my adventures via my social media pages but a friend suggested that I document my adventures on a blog. In July 2017 downdiroad.com was born.

The intention of DownDiRoad JA was to document the adventures of myself and my friends while shedding light on various aspects of Jamaican culture. As time has progressed, what was a simple travel blog has transformed into a fully functioning lifestyle brand, with a key focus on visual storytelling.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I graduated from the University of Technology, Jamaica, with a B.Sc. in Hospitality and Tourism Management and recently completed my MBA specializing in International Business, at the Mona School of Business and Management. Throughout my decade long career in hospitality, I’ve been employed to a diverse number of companies both in Jamaica and the USA, and my expertise spans throughout the areas of airline, hotel, food & beverage, ground transportation, tours/concierge, as well as administrative and general operation management. I’ve also won multiple awards but one of the things I’m most proud of it gaining national recognition by the Ministry of Tourism for Service Excellence.

It took many years of hard work and discipline to get to this stage. It was not easy, but having the will to succeed as well as a good support system has made the difference in my life. I’ve learned much over the past years, and I think my strong background in hospitality has helped me greatly to push forward my travel brand DownDiRoad JA.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I don’t have much experience in Miami, but if a friend was visiting Kingston, Jamaica for a week and I had the time to show them around I would plan a bunch of activities. I would take them to a few awesome restaurants and bars, as well as introduce them to some of the Kingston nightlife. We would definitely have to escape the city for a bit & take a drive out to country to see some of our other parishes and attractions!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Dedicating this shoutout to the DownDiRoad JA team; Channae, Ayesha, Rik and Tenny.

Website: https://downdiroad.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/downdiroadja

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/downdiroadja

Twitter: https://twitter.com/downdiroadja https://twitter.com/downdiroadja

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downdiroadja

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/downdiroadja

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@downdiroadja?lang=en

Image Credits
DDR Media