Nov. 19, 2008 — In the face of what one hotelier has called the most daunting tourist season ever, Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty laid out the agency's 2009 stimulus plan Wednesday before the V.I. Hotel and Tourism Association at a luncheon meeting at the Holiday Inn Windward Passage Hotel.
Hotelier Richard Doumeng, Hotel Association board chair and long-time tourism leader, called the upcoming season "the most daunting, a tough season." However, there's a bright side, he said: "When (not if) we emerge from this, we will be in a position as strong as any in the Caribbean." Doumeng is also an officer of the Caribbean Hotel Association.
Nicholson-Doty, who led the Hotel Association for the better part of 14 years, talked about the current travel market and the agency's stimulus plan to attract visitors with strapped pocketbooks.
"Our core market has a different attitude about vacations," she said. "They believe they have earned it; it's a rite of passage."
She quoted Travel Industry Association statistics as saying "71 percent of that market will vacation this season." Replying to the question of the day, Nicholson-Doty said: "I don't know if it's the 'toughest' we've ever had — I'm not that old. If we hold flat this year, we will have been a success, in my opinion."
The U.S. economic recession has finally hit the Virgin Islands, causing a projected $43.5 million drop in government revenues, the governor's financial team told the Senate this week. The impact is expected to spill over into FY 2009, forcing the need for "well-timed" economic policies and initiatives, including strong tourism-marketing campaigns, which Nicholson-Doty detailed Wednesday.
"Six out of 10 visitors comparison shop," Nicholson-Doty said. "They are looking for a deal, maybe fewer nights."
Airlift globally was down 2.9 percent in September, she said.
"Our flight service to St. Thomas has increased 3 percent since May, and we have recaptured all but 9 percent of St. Croix," Nicholson-Doty said. "This is very important."
In outlining the 2009 stimulus plan, the department has gone directly to the airlines, the commissioner said.
"We have talked to them personally, asking for airlift," she said, "and we have been able to build our air capacity through the Blue Ribbon Airlift Committee and the governor's Airlines Committee."
Nicholson-Doty commended Gov. John deJongh Jr. for ensuring that the $18.4 million from the Tourism Revolving Fund goes 100 percent to tourism. Though the funds are derived from the hotel-room tax and set aside exclusively to promote tourism and economic development, past Legislatures have dipped into the fund for pet projects having nothing directly to do with tourism.
First on the stimulus plan is a $1.5 million, dedicated 45-day "Fall Economic Spike " initiative that started the first of this month. It includes Sirius Satellite radio's "Oprah" program; the N.Y. Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today newspapers; and New York Magazine. The plan will focus on the New York, Boston, Chicago Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., markets.
Travel agents have become important again, Nicholson-Doty said. The department has launched a travel-agent training program. Agents who complete the training will earn rewards for every 75 nights sold in the territory,
Other initiatives include an enhanced international marketing effort, particularly with the Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Norway. Meetings and incentive marketing trade shows for 2009 represent an investment of more than $250,000, targeting several markets in more than 60 places, which stretch from the States to Europe and the Caribbean.
A completely redesigned Tourism website is coming in January.
"It's in three stages," Nicholson-Doty said. "It has several components; it's more interactive. It's a 'people's' website. Our culture and history is threaded through the site as a part of our overall picture."
The site will offer a neutral booking option and search engine, immersive photography, video, promotional content and no end of bells and whistles.
The audience of travel and hotel professionals voiced a loud "hurrah" and a collective sigh of relief with the commissioner's announcement that the tourism phone, 800-372-8784, a source of annoyance to the public in the past, now has a 24-hour answering service.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
