The Turks & Caicos Hotel And Tourism Association Ramps Up Its Promotional Efforts In Overseas Markets
TURKS & CAICOS – The Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association (TCHTA) has experienced a fruitful February by attending major profile marketing and sales events targeting the trade and consumer tourism markets in the USA and Canada.
The TCHTA’s sales blitz of the U.S. Eastern Board began in New York where the TCHTA had a strong presence at The New York Times Travel Show (6th- 8th February). This is the largest travel show for the trade and consumer tourism market, and a major gateway for the Turks & Caicos Islands.
The Islands were well represented at the show and some of the islands resorts supported promotional efforts at this major market event including: Royal West Indies, The Regent Grand and West Bay Club. Karen Whitt, President of the TCHTA commented, “The New York Times Travel Show is the holy grail of tourism shows for us, it’s a major market and the show attracts thousands of trade contacts as well as tourists. The resorts that attended received some excellent leads from the event. We also met with Voyages, the luxury travel company and the WSJ (the lifestyle magazine produced by the Wall Street Journal) to firm up a major sponsorship deal”.
Voyages, produces high-end visual programming and destination guides for online and television outlets, to promote a specific destination to tourists. The company will be featuring the Turks & Caicos Islands within a special production and are visiting the islands this month to shoot footage as the basis of their content. This will ensure the islands are engaging with the world’s most affluent consumer – the luxury traveler.
After New York, the TCHTA initiated a hard working sales blitz in Montreal and Toronto, where TCHTA met with Air Canada to further strengthen the relationship and expand the services between Canada and the Turks & Caicos Islands. Caesar Campbell, CEO of TCHTA said, “We had a beneficial meeting with Air Canada that is looking to increase service to Providenciales this coming winter. This is good news for the island as there is an increasing demand amongst Canadian tourists to visit our islands and this will open up the destination to this country further.”
Dinner in Toronto. Back Row (L-R): Scott Hagen, Somerset Resort; Caesar Campbell CEO, TCHTA; Joanne, Straight Out Adventures; Lillian Day, Resort to the Best & Toronto Sales Rep. for The Sands & The Somerset on Grace Bay
Front Row (L-R): Katrina York, West Bay Club; Rosemarie Wilson, Tourist Board Canadian Rep and Tamara Moore, Gansevoort/Wymara.
During the sales Blitz, the TCHTA held a dinner reception for Canada’s largest travel agent consortium Virtuoso, West Jet, Air Canada and the local media. The Somerset, The Sands, West Bay Club, Gansevoort/Wymara and the Turks & Caicos Tourist Board all supported the event, which was an excellent relationship-building event. We also plan to hold other similar networking functions in the winter”.
Caesar Campbell emphasized the importance of participating at promotional and networking events such as these, “It allows us to represent the destination and our members and promote them as a viable outlet to the key influencers in the tourism industry. It is also essential for the Association to be active at these types of events, to ward of the competition and to drive the industry during these challenging times. We have had a busy month having a presence at these events and there is more to come. We have a full calendar of events which we will be attending over the coming months.”
Dinner in Montreal. L-R: Jean-Francois, Senior Travel Editor – En Route Magazine (Air Canada In-flight Magazine); Tamara Moore, Gansevoort/Wymara; Caesar Campbell CEO, TCHTA and Katrina York, West Bay Club.
