St. Kitts and Antigua Host First Training Programme for Flight Centre Agents

London, UK, 9 December 2011: Up to 35 Flight Centre agents were given a firsthand insight in to the tourism product available in St. Kitts & Nevis when they attended an exclusive Caribbean themed training session, held at the St. Kitts-Nevis High Commission, on Wednesday 7 December.

Held jointly with the Antigua & Barbuda Tourist Board and respective hotel partners from both destinations, the evening training session formed part of St. Kitts agent awareness programme with independent travel retailer, Flight Centre UK Ltd.

Hotel partners including St. Kitts Marriott Resort, Ocean Terrace Inn and Sunrise Marketing representing Ottley’s and Nisbet Plantations, joined the Tourism Authority to host an interactive workshop style evening to highlight the island’s appeal , including its range of visitor attractions, leisure facilities and accommodation. Special emphasis was made on key niche markets, including families and weddings. Lisa Elmes-Bosshard, UK Consultant, St. Kitts Tourism Authority, said, “we welcome Flight Centre as a key partner for St. Kitts and look forward to building a successful relationship.

With Flight Centre’s Caribbean Sale coming up in January 2012, we felt this was an ideal time to ensure agents were fully aware of the St. Kitts & Nevis product and how it differentiates from other Caribbean islands.” Hayley Giles, Flight Centre Caribbean Product Manager, said, “We are delighted to be on board with St. Kitts-Nevis and Antigua-Barbuda and look forward to a long and successful partnership.

As one of the longest established travel retailers, we at Flight Centre pride ourselves in offering a high level of product knowledge, which is why such training sessions are invaluable in educating our agents to become travel experts and of course to be inspired to sell the destination.” True to Caribbean form, agents were treated to a steel band and rum punch welcome to set the mood for the evening while, later, a destination quiz and prize-draw offered the opportunity to win a range of St. Kitts-Antigua prizes such as cooler bags with Caribbean rum cake and island rums.

About Flight Centre

Flight Centre is one of the world’s largest and most successful independent travel retailers with more than 2,000 leisure, corporate, and wholesales businesses in 11 countries and more than 110 high street locations in the UK. Each Flight Centre store has a small team of dedicated travel experts, offering customers the best advice and most competitive travel deals available with the convenience of speaking to someone face to face.

A total of 40 travel consultants from a range of Flight Centre outlets were invited to attend the St. Kitts-Antigua training session on Wednesday 7 December. Hotel partners included:

From St. Kitts & Nevis
• St. Kitts Marriott
• Ocean Terrace Inn
• Sunrise Marketing (Ottley’s & Nisbet)

From Antigua & Barbuda
• Hawksbill/Halcyon Cove by Rex Resorts
• Hermitage Bay/Blue Waters
• Sandals Grande Antigua/Grand Pineapple

St. Kitts and Nevis is currently served twice-weekly on Saturday and Tuesday from London Gatwick via Antigua by British Airways, the first scheduled carrier to provide regular airlift to the island. The BA aircraft uses a three class, 280 seat Boeing 777 aircraft holding 40 Club World seats, 24 World Traveller Plus and 216 World Traveller seats. For more information about St. Kitts, visit the website at www.stkittstourism.kn or follow St. Kitts on on Facebook, Twitter and/or YouTube.