Director of Tourism visits European Offices

Director of Tourism Kedrick Malone returned from a two week visit to the European Offices where he had the opportunity to review the BVI teams.
His visit started in London where he attended the opening of the new London offices, followed by a trip to Milan, Italy, where Massimo Tocchetti ably manages the BVI Office.

His next stop was in Germany where he discussed future plans for marketing and developing. The German Office located in Duesseldorf is headed by Mrs. Gabi Romberg, who has been marketing Nature’s Little Secret since 1991. The German office made a presentation to Mr. Malone about marketing the BVI in the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). He learned about the co-operation between the Tourist Board and German tour operators, as well as about last year's marketing projects and their accomplishments. They also presented to him the plans for the upcoming year.

According to Mrs. Romberg the German team was very impressed by Mr. Malone's presentations and ideas and feel completely re-motivated by his visit.

Mr. Malone talked about his trip as being very informative and educational and found it most important to spend time in the oversee offices to better understand the foreign market.

He noted, that Germany has a very strong market for sailing vacation. Evidence of this is the return of the "Karibik Trophy" a famous sailing regatta.

It will be held in the BVI in November for the 9th time and always brings more than 100 German, Austrian and Swiss sailors to our shores for one week of racing and for many of them another week of leisurely vacationing.
Commenting on the outlook of the German market he reviewed the consumer marketing for 2001 and is looking for an expansion in 2002. As a way of increasing market volume the BVI Tourist Board will launch a German website, similar to the one already operating in Italy. In concluding Mr. Malone said: "We are looking forward to expanding our relationship with tour operators everywhere in Europe."