DT Woman - Baldoza, the dreamer

Manama : From a very young age, Joanna Grizelda Baldoza had been a dreamer and a high achiever. Although she lived a very simple life in the Philippine province of Batangas with her loving and overprotective parents, she always had great expectations about herself as an adult.

When she was in high school, she wanted to do so many things and be a writer or a doctor or a painter. This drew her to a dilemma when she had to decide what her university study was going to be on. Her mother suggested her to take Communication Arts and as it turns out, it became a great experience for Baldoza as the programme included different kinds of arts and communication involving Journalism, Marketing, Advertising, TV production, Radio Production, Literature and Theatre.

Through this programme in the University of Santa Tomas, she figured out what she really wanted to do. She initially thought her passion would lie in journalism, but she found it to be a profession with heavy responsibilities and power. Therefore she chose Marketing and Advertising as a route to her career.

She dived deep into the field by watching more TV commercials than TV programmes and appreciating the work behind how Marketing and Advertising touches people’s lives. She was also trained in Summit Media in the editorial section.

When her mother was diagnosed with Ménière’s disease around the time she was graduating from college with an honours degree, she had to take on a high paying job instead of the Marketing and Advertising jobs she desired from well-established companies.

She first got employed in HSBC in the Philippines, and then moved to Bahrain and worked in the travel industry as a tourist consultant for corporate travel. After four years of being well settled in her job, she finally asked herself whether this was a job she wanted to be in for the long term and decided that she wanted to finally go after her passion.

Baldoza took the risk and applied for a job in the hotel industry. She was accepted as a marketing and communications coordinator at ART Rotana hotel. After finishing her preopening work at the hotel, she realised that she has grown enough to jump into a higher position and ended up being welcomed by Marriot as a PR and Marketing Executive as well as a manager for Skywalk Café in Marriot Executive Apartments.

Pushing for marketing awareness

 Speaking to DT News, Baldoza elaborated on how Marriot has helped her thrive to her fullest potential.

“Marriot has been flexible and encouraging as they have given me a space of my own. I am free to execute my own plans for the two properties of Marriot Executive Apartments and Marriot Executive Inn. As the hotel industry grows and adapts to trends, Marriot continues to create brands for different kinds of guests.”

A weekend in Bahrain with the Pink Tarha

Baldoza is currently working on making a project successful with an aim to build Bahrain as a perfect destination.  The Residence Inn by Marriot is teaming up with Saudi bloggers from the Pink Tarha to cater to the expatriates in Saudi looking for a relaxing fun weekend.

“I came up with this initiative because this is the age of social media influencers and bloggers,” she explained. “So I’m inviting two bloggers to come over to Bahrain and experience a weekend here. I wanted a live blog on what it’s like to travel to Bahrain, what you can see here, where to stay, where to go and how to get here.”

This project is supported by companies like FlyNas, Big Texas Barbeque and Gravity Indoor Skydiving. 

 “This is in line with the lifestyle that Resident Inn promotes for young professionals who are busy with work, but looking for a relaxing fun weekend. By bridging Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in terms of tourism through social media, we’ve created an interesting weekend to showcase it to expatriates living in Saudi Arabia who are working there and want to be on their comfort zone in a very relaxing environment during the weekend.”

She confirmed that the Saudi bloggers have arrived recently for the weekend on Thursday and that, “This weekend, we are tweeting and blogging live about Bahrain as a destination spot.”