As part of the Department of Tourism’s ongoing commitment to the destination’s small hotels, the department will host the 2nd Annual Small Hotels Conference to provide marketing and technical support to hotels in the territory with 50 rooms or fewer. The two-day conference will take place on Sept. 21 at the Windward Passage Hotel on St. Thomas and on Sept. 22 at The Buccaneer Hotel on St. Croix. The conference will offer five parallel seminars each day to present small hotels with important marketing techniques and operational information to help enhance their businesses. The seminar topics were selected based on feedback from last year’s conference attendees.
Led by social media marketing specialist Leon Thomas of Choice Hotels International, the Social Media seminar will instruct small hoteliers how to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to increase business and build customer loyalty. The Search Engine Optimization seminar, led by online media expert Bill Bacellar of Tericon Media, will discuss ways to maximize exposure for small hotel Web sites on the Internet. The V.I. Police Department will lead a seminar to advise hoteliers about safety and security measures that can be implemented at small hotels, and the V.I. Energy Office will conduct a seminar on energy efficiency. Dr. Bryan Williams, a service expert and V.I. native, will introduce customer service training techniques in a seminar on motivating employees to deliver superior customer service.
“Supporting our destination’s small hotels with marketing and training is an important part of our strategy to enhance our tourism product and assist local businesses,” said Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson Doty. “We are pleased to continue our support of the territory’s small hotels as part of our dedicated marketing plan against this segment.”
In 2009, the Department of Tourism launched a comprehensive marketing plan to promote the small hotel segment, which included the development of the evergreen Inntimate Treasures package, a dedicated ad campaign, a small hotels section on the DOT’s bi-monthly newsletter, separate identification for the small hotel segment on the DOT Web site visitusvi.com, and a small hotels brochure featuring photos and descriptions of all of the small hotels in the territory.
To participate in the free conference, advance registration is required.Hoteliers in the St. Croix district should contact Trina Soto-Clarke at 772-0357 or e-mail tsclarke@usvitourism.vi. Hoteliers in the St. Thomas/St. John district should contact Keezi Pinney at 774-8784 or e-mail kjpinney@usvitourism.vi.
