A love for meeting people

ROSARIO Antoinette “Chacha” Rama (nee Realiza) of Marco Polo Plaza Hotel and Joan Mitz Zamora of Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino share a common love for meeting people, which is ideal for the jobs they have in the hotel trade.

Chacha, who was born in Dipolog City, finished her elementary and high school studies in St. Theresa’s College and finished business management major in hotel and restaurant management in UP Cebu where she also took graduate studies in Teaching English as a Second Language.

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Her first job was with Cebu Midtown Hotel as front desk clerk and guest relations officer, and then as public relations assistant manager of then Cebu Plaza Hotel.

In 1995, she made a career shift and landed with Ayala Center Cebu as regional marketing supervisor, moving to Cebu Holdings/Ayala Land the following year as regional sales manager. In 2000, she became a licensed real estate broker and in 2003, and taught at the Cebu International School until 2006.

From 2006 to 2009, she was sales and marketing director of Eastern Housing and Development Corporation. Being a hotelier at heart, she was easily enticed to join Marco Polo Plaza as public relations manager late last year.

Chacha says that she missed public relations work, which she says is her “niche.” So she is happy to be back in the work she loves. She enjoys the excitement of meeting different people, the challenge of planning and executing events, though the long hours often take her away from family.

She compensates by asking them—husband Enrique Vicente and sons Joseph Gerard and Abraham Anthony—to join her in the hotel, like during Christmas and New Year when they check in as guests, thus making them a part of what she does.

For Joan, being in public relations is a career shift, a new challenge. She took up her elementary and high school at University of San Carlos, and her AB mass communications in St. Theresa’s College, serving her college internship with The Freeman, RCTV (Real Cebu Television) and in dySS Super Radio.

She was part of the creative committee of the 2005 Philippine Advertising Congress.

After graduation in 2007, she worked with Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa as front office service associate, and then moved on to Smart. Her stint with Waterfront is her first time to do public relations and marketing communications work.

Fortunately for her, Waterfront management has been very helpful so she has been able to adjust to the challenge and pace of the work.

To recharge her energies from the demands of the work, she meets up with her former classmates and catches up with them.

She still goes to her old hangout during her school days. It’s Larsian (the famed no-frills barbecue nook in midtown Cebu) and the vicinity of Fuente Osmeña because she says she loves to be in a crowd, to people watch, and what better place than Fuente?

Here she also enjoys taking a look around the shops. Away from Fuente, her other hangout is The Outpost for the music.

Chacha and Joan are two people the Cebu community will surely be hearing more from and seeing more of—two women with a feel for people and a love for interacting with them, which makes one feel welcome in their respective establishments.