ORLANDO, Fla. – (January 20, 2005) – Antigua and Barbuda’s 2006 tourism marketing program will be aimed at increasing visitation from the highest producing point-of-origin markets in the U.S., using public relations and consumer promotions as the tourism program’s primary marketing tools.  Plans for the nation’s U.S. tourism strategy were reviewed, adjusted and confirmed by Ministry of Tourism marketing leaders in two days of marketing meetings with Orlando-based Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R).

“Strategically, our marketing efforts and budget will be directed squarely at the most productive markets that historically and potentially can deliver the most for our money,” said Minister of Tourism Harold Lovell, who was joined by Ministry Product Development Director in the Ministry of Tourism, Lorraine Headley, Director of Tourism for the USA Derede Samuel-Whitlock, Aviation consultant Stanley Chambers, and Neil Forrester, on behalf of the Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association (AH&TA), to review publicity and promotions plans created by YPB&R. 

Minister Lovell specifically identified the New York and Atlanta metro markets as two points of origin that are important in the nation’s tourism marketing plans.  “In particular, Delta Airlines has afforded us tremendous support in these markets and, in response, we will be concentrating our publicity and promotion efforts to ensure Delta, and other airlines serving Antigua, maximize their load factors to our nation.”

Minister Lovell and his colleagues also reviewed YPB&R’s marketing results since the marketing company was contracted September 1, 2005. 

Some of the key results presented included:

• A further $232,090 in free advertising exposure was generated during the fourth quarter, 2005 from editorial publicity placements.  Some of the key placements generated featuring Antigua and Barbuda include magazine features in Caribbean Travel & Life, Vogue, Altitude magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Palm Beach Post and travel trade magazine Travel Weekly.  The national publicity program, which requires a longer period to generate results because of the long-lead editorial times required by magazines and larger newspapers, is expected to exponentially increase during 2006.

Illustrative of the growth of Antigua and Barbuda’s increasing presence as a newsworthy Caribbean destination, Minister Lovell broke from the meetings on Friday, Jan. 20, to conduct an on-air radio interview with radio personality Debbie Nigro, whose travel program is syndicated on 14 stations in the northeastern United States on the Lifestyle Talk Radio Network.  Nigro’s program, which is taped, will air on various individual radio stations during the week of January 23.

The Ministry of Tourism officials and YPB&R also discussed online marketing strategies and new graphic and visual approaches to be used in various marketing printed materials.  These strategies will be more fully defined in the next month and will require review and approval of the Ministry marketing team prior to being implemented.

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