Hotelier John Jefferis started his career in hospitality as a schoolboy working in a fish-and-chip restaurant in London’s tough east end — but now he’s become only the second member of the Tourism Hall of Fame in Trinidad & Tobago.

Mr Jefferis, who numbers the Coco Reef Resorts in Bermuda and Tobago among his interests, said: “It was a fish-and-chip restaurant because it had three tables.”

He added: “Having devoted my career to the hospitality and tourism industry it’s an honour to be inducted into the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism Association Hall of Fame.”

Mr Jefferis, 64, started out in hospitality in London, aged just 15 in the Stepney fish-and-chip shop.

But he graduated from Birmingham University with a national award for the top final year management student, which led to an internship at the exclusive Savoy Hotel in London.

From there he moved to Bermuda, ending a stint at the landmark Belmont Hotel as general manager before becoming managing director at the Elbow Beach Hotel.

But he also branched out into business on his own, acquiring Edgehill Manor, Roxy’s Nightclub and the Palm Reef Hotel, all of which he later sold.

But his biggest venture was the 1992 start $82 million Coco Reef in Tobago, a multiple award winner that became one of the region’s most successful resorts, followed by 2003’s acquisition of the Stonington Beach Hotel in Paget, which underwent a $14.3 million revamp before it reopened under the Coco Reef banner a year later.

Mr Jefferis said: “I wanted to have my own hotel and started working towards that and built the one in Tobago — after borrowing a lot of money.

“It worked out well in Tobago, particularly with regards to getting the airlines, which was important. I was able to travel with the Trinidad & Tobago government to London to get British Airways to fly direct.”

And he added: “I’ve mostly always enjoyed the hotel business — although I’m now interested in construction upgrading and designing, things of that nature.”

Mr Jefferis said that the Bermuda outpost of his business empire had seen an upswing in trade this month compared to the same time last year — and that it was not all attributable to the upcoming Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Bermuda races.

The lifelong hospitality industry expert, who was Bermuda’s first hotelier of the year in 1989 among other major regional awards, explained: “There is some America’s Cup, but it’s a general increase.”

And Mr Jefferis added that Bermuda needed a major TV advertising campaign in key cities to further promote the Island.

He said: “What I would like to see is a creative and attractive TV ad to attract interest in Bermuda — that’s what we used to do and they should be placed in gateway markets.

“But it has to be really creative. We have to spend a lot of time and money getting a really remarkable TV advertisement — it’s important to have something really outstanding, something people will talk about.”

And Mr Jefferis predicted: “Tourism will improve, particularly if we can get the ads out there.”