St. Kitts Tourism Authority conducts annual marketing strategy meetings

Officers of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority

Basseterre, St. Kitts (April 27, 2010) – Directors, managers and consultants of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority (SKTA) from overseas offices, along with the island’s various tourism industry private sector stakeholders, participated in the annual destination marketing strategy meetings, which took place over two days April 22-23, 2010 at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.

This year’s agenda was structured around a series of interactive workshops, discussions, presentations and reviews, led by the SKTA’s senior management staff and specialist consultants.

The destination’s existing strategies and tactics for reaching potential visitors were reviewed, new opportunities were examined and likely areas for adjustment were identified, based on the current marketplace conditions and predictions. In addition, various marketing vehicles and how to best employ them to engage potential customers from St. Kitts’ base of business and leisure travelers were explored. Particular emphasis was given to online mediums, as they have increasingly become an effective and low-cost means of reaching consumers.

Meeting opening

“These meetings were not about the Tourism Authority or the Ministry of Tourism dictating the way forward, but rather they were designed to facilitate a variety of stakeholders learning from each other’s market knowledge and expertise,” said Minister Ricky Skerritt, who was himself present at the meetings. “The outcome will be a fine-tuning of our marketing strategy so as to better position St Kitts to meet the needs of ‘the age of the consumer’ in a shifting but crowded and very competitive supply environment.”

According to St Kitts Tourism Authority CEO, Rosecita Jeffers, “The general feedback was that as an emerging destination St. Kitts had achieved relatively good success in a short time through challenging economic times, but that we need to intensify and adjust our efforts so as to more effectively leverage the uniqueness and value of the St Kitts brand in the new and more demanding customer environment.”

Presentations were made on an ongoing project to refurbish and upgrade the tourism website, as well as various current marketplace trends impacting the regional tourism industry.

Stakeholder workshops and round table discussions covered topics such as how to leverage events and other special niche areas, opportunities for strengthening public/private sector partnerships in destination marketing, and making better use of social media and database management.

St. Kitts overseas tourism management and professional staff are also using their visit home as an opportunity to update their local product awareness by visiting new and emerging tourism projects.

Round table discussion	Section of meeting