The Tourism Department has joined forces with Brand USA in hopes of increasing the number of visitors that arrive from Canada, a press release from the department indicated. Brand USA is a joint government and private sector partnership forged to promote tourism across the United States and its territories to international visitors.

"Through Brand USA's marketing efforts, the U.S. Virgin Islands will amplify its reach into the Canadian travel market," Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson Doty said. "We are pleased to partner with the first entity to promote inbound travel to the United States and to help increase awareness and interest in travel to our islands."

Under the partnership, the Tourism Department contributed more than $100,000.

The Tourism Department maintains a dedicated sales and marketing presence in Canada. The press release indicated that more than 39,000 Canadians have visited the territory over the past five years, and that Tourism's website has attracted more than 27,000 unique visitors in Canada this year, with more than 80 percent of those representing first-time visitors to the website.

The partnership marks the first between Brand USA and any of the five U.S. territories.

"Brand USA's partnership with the U.S. Virgin Islands will create benefits far beyond the immediate marketing campaign," said Caroline Beteta, Brand USA's interim chief executive officer and incoming chair of the organization's board of directors. "Brand USA's inaugural campaign in Canada resulted in an increase in intent to visit the United States by 13 points, so we're confident this new collaboration will attract a growing number of visitors for the U.S. and the U.S. Virgin Islands too.”

Brand USA was established by the federal Travel Promotion Act in 2010 to spearhead the United States' first global marketing effort to promote the nation as a premier travel destination and communicate U.S. entry/exit policies and procedures. Formed as the Corporation for Travel Promotion, the public-private entity, doing business as Brand USA, began operations in May 2011.

Brand USA works in close partnership with the travel industry to maximize the economic and social benefits of travel.