SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The Caribbean tourism community gathered last week in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the first inaugural Internet Marketing Conference, Online Revealed Caribbean. With an innovative agenda including speakers from Expedia, VFM Interactive, Travelzoo, Marketwire and more.
With an attendance of over 75 Caribbean tourism professionals from destination marketing organizations, hotels, resorts, media and marketing agencies, and tourism suppliers from the Caribbean destinations of Aruba, US Virgin Islands, Barbados, Tortola, Montserrat, Jamaica, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico and beyond, the event provided an opportunity to network, learn and share best practices for success on the web.
“The first and only conference of its kind in the Caribbean provided the participants with real life case studies, solutions and hands-on tools and resources that they could use to learn and understand more about Enterprise Marketing, Web Management and Internet and Distribution to fiercely compete in this global marketplace,” said Hari Nair, the Vice President of Lodging at Expedia, Inc. “I was also impressed with the calibre of the attendees and their sense of engagement throughout the duration of the conference…truly, very well done by the Online Revealed team.”
The two-day agenda, modelled after the successful Online Revealed Canada Conferences, offered a hands-on practical approach to marketing tourism online, bringing keynote presentations, a B2B Expo offering attendees one-on- one time with leading e-marketing specialists, hands on workshops with case studies, and steps for getting started online.
“The majority of travel conferences tend to be simply infomercials for speakers and sponsors,” said Mandy Gresh, Country Manager for online travel deal publisher, Travelzoo Canada, and speaker for the Caribbean event. “Online Revealed brings a refreshing approach to actually educating attendees about how it is actually done.”
Delegates heard industry experts speak about how to get the most ROI from your website, how to reach new markets even if you are a smaller destination, how to work co-operatively with online travel agencies, and how to decide if social media and joining the world of bloggers is right for your travel and tourism organization.
Industry experts included representatives from Expedia, Marketwire, Travelscream, T4G, VFM Interactive, A Couple of Chicks e-Marketing, TIG Global, radonicrodgers design+marketing, Idea Market and POWERi, just to name a few.
Plans for the second annual Caribbean Internet marketing conference are already underway for 2009.
