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Pictured: Representative from St. Kitts & Nevis interact with
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| Basseterre, St. Kitts (May 8th, 2018) – The St. Kitts Tourism Authority recently conducted its 1st annual Destination St. Kitts & Nevis US Roadshow, which is now a signature activity in US.
The week-long series of events was held in New Jersey, New York and Atlanta in order to grow these gateway markets and, in the case of Atlanta, support the Midwest flow market, all of which support St. Kitts’ target demographics and current airlift.
These events were designed to educate travel agents, tour operators, MICE planners, media, experiential lifestyle consumers and St. Kitts & Nevis diaspora about everything the destination has to offer travelers.
“Connecting face-to-face with travel industry professionals in the top gateway and feeder markets for our non-stop flights is a vital part of our marketing strategy,” said Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. “It is important to develop strong, lasting relationships with these individuals and expand our base of ambassadors in order to grow arrivals into the destination year over year.” |
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Pictured: Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, and Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, with the winner of the Grand Prize, Irv Rosenberg of Valerie Wilson Travel, Inc. (center). Irv won a trip to St. Kitts consisting of: two round trip tickets to St. Kitts on Delta Air Lines, 3 nights at Belle Mont Farm all-inclusive, 3 nights at Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour with daily breakfast, round trip airport transfers with VIP service and one complimentary tour including round trip transfers from Sunlinc, St. Kitts Scenic Railway tour and dinner for two at Poinciana from Dreamy Weddings. |
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| Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, added, “I am very pleased with the quality of attendees and overwhelming success of the week of events. The responses we have been receiving from the media, tour operators, travel agents, MICE planners, golf consumers and diaspora including members of the St. Kitts and Nevis Association of Atlanta with whom we interacted has been nothing but positive.”
Kicking off the week of events were networking functions held at Caffe Aldo Lamberti in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, and at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Red Bank, New Jersey, an upscale borough in the northern part of the state near the shore. The next day, the delegation interacted with guests at a high-tech, virtually immersive event at Lightbox NYC where videos of the destination played on all four walls of the venue. After flying to Atlanta, the action continued in upscale suburbs of the city, with events at The Manor Golf & Country Club on Thursday and the Grand Hyatt Buckhead on Friday. |
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Pictured: The delegation from St. Kitts and Nevis at the destination event held at the Manor Golf & Country Club.
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| The events each attracted between 35 and 65 attendees, all of whom were top travel professionals representing some of the most respected organizations in the business. In addition to being treated to videos and lively conversation with representatives from St. Kitts, the individuals played games, listened to presentations and won a variety of prizes from a hotel stays to island or catamaran tours and bottles of Brinley Gold Shipwreck rum to golf round trip VIP airport transfers, all of which were donated by participating tourism stakeholders.
At the Lightbox and Manor events, the Grand Prize included two round trip tickets to St. Kitts as provided by Delta Airlines along with hotel stays and tours. As a result, many of the attendees are now adding St. Kitts & Nevis as a featured destination they will sell, promote or visit.
The delegation from St. Kitts consisted of: Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Avenice Thompson, Director of Marketing of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Denise Zimber, Christina Mucha and Michelle Reed, Marketing Consultants for the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Tom Jaronski, Golf Consultant for the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; Adriana Suao, Vice President – Account Services, and Stephany Bermudez, Creative Director, of Tambourine; and Candice Kimmel, CEO and Founder, and Cathy Preece, Vice President & Accounts Supervisor, of Adams Unlimited, PR & Marketing Agency for the St. Kitts Tourism Authority.
A number of tourism stakeholders from St. Kitts & Nevis were also part of the delegation, including: Chris Ghita, General Manager, Ocean Terrace Inn; Kayrecia Simmonds, Manager, Kantours Destination Services; Marielle Alexander, Manager St. Kitts & Nevis, Sunlinc; Christine Marshall and Rachel Roland, Sales Managers for Park Hyatt St. Kitts; Sylvia Martinez, Director of Sales and Marketing, St. Kitts Marriott; Jennie Luppinacci, Owner, Hermitage; Natalie John, CEO, Dreamy Weddings; Cyndi Miller-Aird, President, Miller + Aird Destination Marketing for Belle Mont Farm; Jamar Wilkins, Travel Industry Sales Manager, Four Seasons Resort Nevis; Karen Bull, Representative for Nisbet Plantation Beach Club; and Darren Thompson, General Manager, Royal St. Kitts.
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Pictured: CEO Brown (L) and Chairman Menon (R) with Veronica Mehmedbasic, winner of the Grand Prize at the Manor. Veronica won a trip to St. Kitts consisting of: two round trip tickets to St. Kitts on Delta Air Lines; 3 nights at Belle Mont Farm all-inclusive; 3 nights at Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour with daily breakfast; YU Lounge arrival; arrival luxury airport transfers with VIP service and a complimentary zip line tour including round trip transfers from Kantours; a St. Kitts Scenic Railway tour; one 18-hole round of golf at the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club; and one 18-hole round of golf at the Four Seasons Resort Nevis Golf Club. |
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Pictured: Darren Thompson of Royal St. Kitts with Anne Cawley and Janet Koloski from Tzell Travel Group at the Molly Pitcher Inn.
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Pictured: Jamar Wilkins of Four Seasons Nevis with with Jill Gilber and Joanne Cortez of Gilber Travel at Caffe Aldo Lamberti.
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Pictured: Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority (L) and Candice Kimmel, CEO and Founder of Adams Unlimited (R) with Christine Kennedy, General Manager, Network Planning & Global Partnership Development, Delta Air Lines at Lightbox NYC.
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Pictured: Christine Marshall of Park Hyatt St. Kitts (R) with Dina Silvestri of Stepping Out Travel (L) and Lizbeth Grudus of Vacations by Liz at the Molly Pitcher Inn.
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Pictured: Kerri Simmonds of Kantours with attendees at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead.
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Pictured: Chris Ghita of the Ocean Terrace Inn with Christina Ernst and Stacey Gable of VIP Tours at the Manor Golf & Country Club.
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Pictured: Chairman Menon and CEO Brown of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority with Lonnie Quinn, Chief weathercaster, CBS 2 News at 5, 6 and 11 weekdays and national weather anchor for “CBS This Morning” Saturday at Lightbox NYC.
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Pictured: CEO Brown and Chairman Menon of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority draw the name of the Grand Prize winner at the Manor Golf & Country Club.
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Pictured: Avenice Thompson, Director of Sales & Marketing for the St. Kitts Tourism Authority with Stacy Gross of Favorite Place Travel at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead.
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Pictured: (L to R) Kevin Purcell, Executive Director and Deirdre Deke-Walsh of the New Jersey State Golf Association, Tom Jaronski, Sylvia Martinez of the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, Peter Gati of New Brand Ventures and Matthew Smith of Allied Beverage at Lightbox NYC.
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Pictured: Natalie John of Dreamy Weddings with Erin Riley, Associate Editor of Departures at Lightbox NYC
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Pictured: Cyndi Miller-Aird for Belle Mont Farm with ( L to R ) Dave Bongiovi of By All Means Travel, Stephen Cilliberto of GOGO Tours, Kris Bongiovi of By All Means Travel and Ethel Sher of Vagabond Travel.
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