Michelle Alexander, founder of Encounters, a destination management company, stands near the tour desk at Kapok Hotel. Photo: MARCUS GONZALES

Imagine travelling to France to learn Spanish! Well, Michelle Alexander went boldly to a French university and took on the challenge. And although at the end of her first class she could write only one comma and two short words, she pressed on repeating the first year of her programme after doing horribly. Alexander, who studied A-Level French in T&T, thought she could have coped but it proved more difficult as all her lectures were in French. “I thought that I would kill two birds with one stone, I thought that maybe with the culture, I would be able to learn French better and learn Spanish in class,” she said in a Sunday Guardian interview.

Alexander, 31, chose to remain at the University of Caen to pursue Spanish and eventually, Sociology. She worked in France while pursuing her education and left the University after obtaining a Masters Degree in Sociology. Though devastated at having to repeat her first year, she was not set back for long as she looked at it as a challenge. “To me it was like, I came here to study...” she said.
She said at that time in 1997, education in France was free for both locals and foreigners.

Taking T&T’s business abroad
Alexander, who came from a modest family, recognised that her family could not pay for her university education in T&T, hence her reason for choosing France. She relied on notes from French students and said when she started her second year, things improved. Being the only English-speaking student and Trini in her subject area also did not scare Alexander, who lived in France for 12 years. Alexander also made an important decision last year and returned to school full-time to pursue a Masters degree in Tourism Management in France. Now fluent in French, Alexander has started her own business called Encounters, a destination management company. It is the only business in France that focuses on marketing T&T as a tourist destination.

She has been encouraging people from France to visit T&T, along with organising their trips, since 2005. “Most of the people I have met never heard about T&T. They don’t see Trinidad as a tourist destination,” she said. Alexander is on an internship with Gail’s Exclusive Tours Services Ltd in Trinidad where she has been linking hands with other members in T&T’s tourism industry. The internship will complete her degree which she will pursue at a private business school. Alexander said that she sees her company as helping to boost tourism. Although the crime situation is worrying, she believes it is still a beautiful country. “T&T has not lost its beauty,” she said. She also has an ambitious goal to become the representative of the T&T product in France.