PRESS RELEASE – THE Saint Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) hosted its sixth annual Saint Lucia Showcase UK from September 18 to 22. More than 150 UK travel trade partners took part in the week-long series of events and meetings culminating with the Saint Lucia Gala Awards last Thursday.
On Monday, an SLTB delegation accompanied by Minister for Tourism, Dominic Fedee; Saint Lucia’s High Commissioner to the UK, Guy Mayers; and Saint Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association (SLHTA) President, SanovnikDestang, held meetings with British Airways and British Airways Holidays, and Virgin Holidays & Virgin Atlantic officials to discuss destination marketing, airlift, forecast and developments in the travel market.
On Tuesday, the Travel Trade Gazette (TTG), one of the United Kingdom’s main travel trade titles, conducted an interview with Fedee. Additionally, a media event was hosted at the High Commission for Saint Lucia with over 40 guests from various media houses in attendance. Fedee and the SLTB delegation engaged media trade partners and expanded the destination perspective beyond a wedding and honeymoon destination.
A highlight of the 2017 Saint Lucia Showcase UK was the appreciation dinner at The Mayfair Hotel, Stratton Street, London on Thursday. At the Gala, 18 senior level guests from key tour operator partners were honoured in 11 award categories.
Held over two days (September 21 to 22), Showcase UK was hosted by radio and club DJ Trevor Nelson, of Saint Lucian heritage, who was joined by two more sons of Saint Lucia — actor Joseph Marcell and footballer Les Ferdinand.
Fedee attended the Showcase event series to acknowledge the support of UK tour operators, airlines, travel agents, industry partners and media for helping to keep the island’s tourism industry buoyant and the economy moving.
The destination has seen a healthy rise in year-to-date stay-over arrivals of 8.9% globally. It is enjoying renewed interest from UK holidaymakers with an increase of 6% from July 2016 to July 2017. Saint Lucia was also recently chosen as the most popular Caribbean island in the world by the Conde Nast Traveller Reader Awards 2017.
The full list of categories for the 2017 Saint Lucia Showcase Award are:
1. Product Manager of the Year (2016)
2. Tour Operator with the Best Use of Social Media for Saint Lucia (2016)
3. Tour Operator with the Best Growth to Saint Lucia (2016)
4. Online Travel Agent (OTA) with the Best Growth to Saint Lucia (2016)
5. Luxury Tour Operator with the Best Growth to Saint Lucia (2016)
6. Tour Operator with the Best Growth in Weddings & Honeymoons to Saint Lucia (2016)
7. Tour Operator with the Best Growth for Small Hotels in Saint Lucia (2016)
8. Tour Operator with the Best Digital Representation of Saint Lucia (2016)
9. Best Producing Specialist Tour Operator (2016)
10. Best Hotel Partnerships (2016)
11. Special Recognition for Contribution to the Destination