It is going to be a very busy year of marketing events for the Anguilla Tourist Board, starting from the first quarter. The events, over the next few months, were outlined to The Anguillian newspaper by the Board’s Acting Manager of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Jameel Rochester, whose substantive post is Assistant Manager, Destination Experience.
“Throughout this year, the Anguilla Tourist Board is going to be involved in a number of initiatives and I am just going to run through our first quarter of activities,” he told the newspaper. “We are going to be doing a lot of things related to travel trade and consumer shows. We are going to be having road shows and sales calls – working on seminars, presentations, conferences, workshops and initiatives where there will be industry participation. For our first quarter, we will be starting out as from the 11th of January by travelling to Germany. There, we will be attending the CTM Travel Show with our representative being the Assistant Manager, Marketing, Colwayne Pickering.”
Mr. Rochester, known for his passion for the industry, continued: “With all our trade and road shows, it is important for us, as representatives of the Head Office, to travel to these events. This is because the people in the industry like to see a familiar face from the destination involved in the promotions. In January, we are going to be involved in three different initiatives with the CTM Travel Show in Germany; CHA Marketplace in the Bahamas; and the New York Times Travel Show.
“As we move forward, we are going to be at BIT Travel Show in Italy; at ANATO in Colombia, South America; and then the AAA Travel Marketplace in the United States. We will be at the ITB Travel Show in Germany; Unite Caribbean in London; the Ottawa Travel Shows in Canada; and the WTM Travel Show which will be held in Brazil, South America.”
Responding to possible comments about the Anguilla Tourist Board being at a lot of road shows, Mr. Rochester stated: “It is important for us to be there to have a presence in the marketplace because tourism is something that is continuous – and in which all Caribbean destinations are involved. So if Anguilla does not have that presence, and being at the top of the minds of our travellers, we will then get lost in the pool. It is therefore important for us, as the Tourist Board, to be continuously promoting our destination with our various representatives in the UK, the United States, Italy, South America, Germany, Canada, as well as in the Caribbean.”
Speaking in his capacity as Assistant Manager, Destination Experience, Rochester said: “We will continue to promote our five pillars of the Anguilla Experience which are: romance, adventure, events and culture, foodies, health and wellness. With 2019 having been a flagship year of our pillars, it is important that we continue to strengthen what we established for 2020. When it comes to April, with our Extraordinary Eats event, on our foodies pillar, we are hoping to expand it into a month of culinary activities. This will encompass our local festivals and events including Festival Del Mar. We want to have a lot of different food themed-type events that would appeal to our local demographics. Not only is it important for our visitors to enjoy our destination, but our people must play a first-hand role in creating and honing a good Anguilla experience.
“In June, we will continue to promote our initiatives for health and wellness. We are going to have a number of activities which will see a greater involvement of our industry partners and stakeholders. This is because for us, as the Anguilla Tourist Board, to understand that when we are promoting the destination, it is not about one specific aspect -but promoting the totality of the authentic Anguillian Experience.”
Mr. Rochester also listed a number of community and other events which the people of Anguilla hold dear. These include Festival Del Mar; the Welches Fest; Moonsplash; West Fest; the Anguilla Summer Festival, Living in the Sun; and the Tennis Cup. He said these, and other events create an environment where there are things to do, see and attend by tourists visiting Anguilla.
Meanwhile, he also took the opportunity to focus on the importance of customer relations. “I think it is important for our various properties and agencies, in both the private and public sectors, to see the benefits of delivering good customer service,” Mr. Rochester stated. “We tend to forget sometimes that our guests return to Anguilla because our people are genuinely warm and happy. It is important that whatever capacity, business or service we are rendering, that we give good customer service and hone a good experience. We, as the Anguilla Tourist Board, have done a number of initiatives because we see the importance of training and development as a destination. We tend to take this very lightly but it is something that we really need to put more emphasis on.”
Rochester added: “We saw the need to enhance our retail sector; to have our taxi-drivers, tour guides and tour operators trained; and we always see the need for customer service training – and were pleased that our private and public sector agencies sent their employees to participate in this training. I just want to get out to our many organisations that customer service training must be one of our focus points.”
