Lennard discusses
CTO Week, Festival, Regatta
Director of the BVI Tourist Board Ms. Anne Lennard has been updating the territory on a number of programmes the Board will be participating in over the next few weeks. One of the issues discussed included the BVI’s participation in CTO Week.
In a wide-ranging press conference on Thursday March 29th, Ms. Lennard announced that a 4-member delegation would attend a week of meetings in New York hosted by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) from April 3rd-6th.
Chairman of the BVI Tourist Board Mr. Stanley Gordon led the team to CTO Week. Other representatives included BVITB Director Anne Lennard and Financial Comptroller Verna Maduro and Assistant Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office Faye Reese. They joined the other 32 members of the CTO in discussing subjects of common interest.
For the last two years, the BVI Tourist Board has become much more involved in supporting the August Festival. Last year, the BVITB was a platinum sponsor and plans are to continue this sponsorship. “This year, we have gone a step further, because what we had identified as a need since the very inception of our involvement is that the Tourist Board should in fact be utilized as a greater promotional vehicle for the purpose of promoting cultural tourist, for the purpose of highlighting the August Festival,” Ms. Lennard stated.
For 2001, the Tourist Board has produced a festival flyer that will be distributed in its U.S and European offices. There’s an eye-catching photo on the front with the schedule of activities on the back. The BVI Spring Regatta will once again benefit from the sponsorship of the BVI Tourist Board. In addition to a financial contribution, the Board will also provide airline tickets for journalists invited by the Spring Regatta Committee. The U.K Office will also be hosting a group of five journalists from the U.K and Denmark.
“We’re very excited about this undertaking because special events, which do include the August Festival and the BVI Spring Regatta, the Tourist Board is very keen on promoting,” the Director stated. “We’re not solely looking towards promoting the destination solely for sun, sand and sea, but for persons who wish to be involved in maybe soft adventure tourism by way of coming and even being part of the Spring Regatta itself and being involved in the August Festival.”
Speaking on the issue of cleanliness of the territory, Ms. Lennard reported on an inspection trip taken by some members of the Board a few weeks ago. “We went around the entire island of Tortola and saw a number of things which need to be addressed.” She said one of the things of concern is the need to clean up many of the communities. She challenged residents to put forward a greater effort in this regard. Meantime, a three-member creative team from the Tourist Board’s public relations agency in New York - Foote, Conde and Belding (FCB) - spent last week here exploring the territory. They have been mandated to come up with concepts and ideas for a new ad campaign to be launched in the fall of this year.
Representatives from the U.S offices
in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York also attended the press
conference. Heading those offices are Hazel Penn in Atlanta,
Perla George in Los Angeles and Iverson Smith in New York. “Our
purpose is to promote, foster and increase the awareness of the
destination as a favourable vacation spot to visitors in North
America,” Ms. George told Reporters. She said this involves
hosting trade shows for consumers and travel agents, small meetings
with special incentive groups, sales calls, familiarization trips
and destination seminars to special interest groups. General
concentration is on the niche markets of diving, sailing, honeymoon,
weddings and the family markets. However, the Regional Sales
Manager for the West Coast said they have a special focus on
the African-American market and the Inns and Villas programme.
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