April 5, 2001 –- In their continuing efforts to get positive press for the territory, V.I. tourism officials are in New York City at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s annual Caribbean Tourism Week.
On Monday, Acting Tourism Commissioner Pamela Richards hosted a private reception for 50 travel journalists who have visited or published articles about St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas in the past two years.
"The event was sponsored by one of the USVI’s longtime marketing partners, Brides magazine, and was a fun, casual way to foster goodwill between the department and key members of the New York-based travel media," said Amy Atkinson, of Martin Public Relations, Tourism’s PR firm.
On Tuesday, Richards held a series of planning meetings with her staff and contracted agencies. Richards toured Tourism’s New York office and met with North America General Manager Henry "Skip" DeLagarde. Additionally, Richards and the team met with potential cooperative marketing partners including Warner Brothers/America Online.
"I believe it is important to make the most of any business trip, so I’m meeting with several potential marketing partners while I’m here," said Richards, who has also met with several magazine representatives. "One of my top priorities for the department is to expand the reach of our marketing dollars by partnering with appropriate organizations to produce a mutually beneficial outcome for our interests. For me, that means increased exposure for the islands without increasing the costs for that exposure."
At another function with 56 representatives from other Caribbean destinations, Richards and her staff met with some 200 journalists at the CTO’s "media marketplace." The marketplace was a collaboration between CTO and the Society of American Travel Writers, and was designed to be a one-stop shop for travel journalists interested in writing about the Caribbean.
Richards said she conducted several interviews with reporters from various media outlets, including print, radio and television.
"Our public relations representatives were on hand to speak directly with the numerous journalists who stopped by our display to inquire about upcoming press trips, story ideas and the latest tourism news," Richards said. "Members of the St. Croix Hotel and Tourism Association and St. Thomas/St. John Hotel and Tourism Association each had their own booths and were excellent representatives for the private sector."
Another important component to the weeklong series of CTO meetings is for the USVI Tourism leader to meet with other Caribbean ministers of tourism and tourism industry leaders, Atkinson said. The main goal of the meetings is to discuss and explore options to help increase the number of Caribbean vacations taken by people from all around the world. Other topics that will be discussed this week are regional marketing efforts, CTO chapters’ concerns, cooperative marketing issues and regional airlift.
In addition to the region’s political tourism leaders, several of CTO’s allied partners are also attending this conference. Allied partners include travel wholesalers, airlines, travel agents (CTO chapter presidents), public relations representatives, travel press and advertising representatives.
