TOURIST BOARD'S OVERSEAS AGENCIES OUTLINE PLANS FOR 2004

Representatives from the BVI Tourist Board's overseas agencies in North America, the UK, Germany and Italy, gave an overview of their markets and outlined their various plans for the marketing and promotion of the British Virgin Islands during a press conference here January 7th.

Catherine Van Kampen of Centric Communications represents the North American market. She said Centric has new ads, new direct marketing brochures and will be looking to get new sales materials and trade show displays as well.

"Also in the new ad campaign this year is a focus on the individual islands and personalities," said Ms. Van Kampen.

Among the public relations projects being worked on for later this year is Ocean Appreciation Day to be held in conjunction with the Chief Minister and Minister of Tourism and marine spokesperson Jean Michel Cousteau.

In addition, the North American agency will organize several press trips to the BVI and represent the territory at international exhibitions and shows. "We are excited about 2004," said Ms. Van Kampen, "the BVI is in a strong position to capitalize on the moment of growth in the North American economy." Ms. Michelle Bach is the Manager of the London office, which covers the United Kingdom and other European countries, including Ireland, Holland, Belgium, France and Scandinavia. This represents the largest market for the BVI, bringing in 16,500 visitors a year.

She pointed out that European visitors stay twice as long and their interests include sailing and cultural activities. She said they are not deterred by threats of terrorism and in this time when the pound and euro are extremely strong, visitors will be more encouraged to travel. Ms. Back also noted that the air access to this part of the world is much better and emphasis will be placed on trying to boost the low and shoulder season.

"We will be looking at marketing niches such as diving, wedding and honeymoon and sports fishing," she outlined. She also said they would work a lot with tour operators, continue their advertising and public relations campaigns and bring the press trip for the BVI Spring Regatta.

"We see nothing but opportunity and hope to see lots of European visitors in the BVI this year," Ms. Bach stated.

Gabrielle Romberg of Travel Marketing Romberg, represents the British Virgin Islands in Germany and the German speaking markets. She announced that the German economy, which wasn't doing too well in the last couple of years, is recovering.

She said the German government announced a major tax cut effective January 1st, 2004, which means the Germans, who have between 30-35 days paid vacation each year, will start travelling again.

Ms. Romberg said during 2004, her agency would continue the popular repeat visitor programme, where visitors to the BVI, by showing a stamp in their passport, become eligible for discounts at some 29 BVI companies when they return.

She said Travel Marketing Romberg would focus a lot on marketing the BVI through the press, in particular television Turning to air access, she pointed out that it takes 18 hours to get from Germany to here, but with the new Air France and KLM flights, there is now more feeder access.

On the Italian scene, Ms. Manuela Bozzolan of AIGO presents figures from the world Trade Organization (WTO) that indicated that in the first six month of 2003, Italian expenditure for travel increased by 4%.

She said Italians like to travel, they mostly travel during the summer holidays and they go long haul destinations. Last summer, 23 million Italians took vacation for an average of 2-3 weeks, 21% of whom went abroad. Ms. Bozzolan said over the Christmas holidays, 9.5 million Italians traveled, 15% to the Caribbean and Indian Ocean.

She spoke of the travelling habits of Italians and noted that they look specifically for service and safety. She said Italians are loyal to some destinations and listen a lot to word of mouth.

"The Italian clientele is becoming very demanding in terms of high quality service," the AIGO official said.

She said she would continue to focus on attracting the beach lovers, honeymooners and the sailing lovers and participating in activities such as exhibitions.

All of the agency representatives said the BVI is looking better and better each year in their individual markets. However, they mentioned that there is still room for improvement of the destination - making it more clean and tidy, making the beaches more accessible, introducing more heritage programmes (e.g. identifying and developing local ruins) and better managing the cruise tourism sub sector.