St. Thomas Real Estate Trends

Attention-grabbing promotions and productive partnerships with the private sector are on the itinerary - along with bold changes such as closing the first of the Tourism Department's offshore offices on June 1, she said.

Doty and the department's contracted advertising and public-relations agencies outlined their 2007-08 plans to well more than 100 hoteliers, tour operators, airline executives, media members and others at the V.I. Hotel and Tourism Association's 14th annual Destination Symposium at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef Resort.

The public-sector presentations are highlights of the event, which brings dozens of U.S. tourism packagers and promoters together with local industry representatives for four days of strategy sessions and fun island activities.

This year's presentations were a clever takeoff on the airline theme, complete with boarding passes and travel-size toiletry gift packs for audience members. Several University of the Virgin Islands students, dressed in white shorts and blouses with bright madras sashes and espadrilles, acted as "flight attendants" at the start.

The Tourism Department's goal is to increase the number of airline visitors by 6 percent over the next 12 months, advertising account director Sebastian Benjamin said. In accordance with V.I. Bureau of Economic Research statistics that show roughly 671,000 passengers arrived in the Virgin Islands in 2006, the targeted increase would be about 40,000 people.

The territory's marketing companies are the same as in years past.

This is the sixth year that ad agency J. Walter Thompson has promoted the Virgin Islands from Atlanta and the third year that public relations firm M Booth & Associates has done so from New York.

Both were re-selected earlier this year for one-year contracts with a one-year option to renew by a team that included V.I. Property and Procurement Department and Tourism officials, Doty said. J. Walter Thompson's contract is worth $1.2 million, while M Booth's is $1.8 million.

"Consistency is important," Doty said of the selections. "We also felt that these two teams emerged as having the base of knowledge about the U.S. Virgin Islands and the energy to promote our destination, along with cutting-edge concepts that they came to the table with."

The work the firms are charged to do now has shifted, however.

The changes were evidenced by the fact that Benjamin and PR account manager Brad Laney made an integrated presentation for the first time. The companies now have been asked to synchronize their plans from the start and to work closely with owners and managers of local resorts and attractions, their representatives said.

Among the plans Doty, Benjamin, Laney and on-island communications director Allegra Kean-Moorehead described:

- Continuing to push a "90th anniversary" summer package that offers a fifth night free at participating resorts, along with a series of complimentary gifts. The offering, which ties in with the recent 90th anniversary of the transfer of possession of the islands from Danish to U.S. hands, has generated about 100 bookings since it was announced several weeks ago, Doty said. The goal is 1,500 bookings by summer's end.

- Launching a new website, www.usvi-ideas.com, on which anyone can send ideas to the Tourism Department about how to improve the local tourism industry. The site went live on Monday. The department's main website also will be redesigned during the coming months.

- Targeting specific segments of the travel market with high potential for the Virgin Islands, including African Americans, scuba divers, romantic travelers, meeting and incentive groups and baby boomers.

- Closing the department's offshore offices, first in Los Angeles this month, and eventually in Atlanta, Chicago and other major cities as their leases expire. The department will shift to a more mobile sales force, using the money saved on rent for hiring more sales representatives. A new sales director, Loán Sewer, started her new job on Tuesday.

- Developing a program over the next six to nine months to collect more thorough data about V.I. visitors.

- Hiring a Danish marketing firm to perform advertising, public relations and sales promotions in Denmark. With input from the private sector, a company recently was selected, and that contract is being finalized, Doty said.

- Capitalizing on the trend toward "babymoons," or trips that expectant couples make before becoming parents. Later this year, shoppers at maternity-wear stories including Motherhood Maternity, Mothers Work and A Pea in the Pod will receive a gift bag with a V.I. vacation offer.

- Hosting two big magazine shoots on St. Croix: one for a 15- to 20-page editorial and photo spread in Bridal Guide magazine, and one 10- to 12-page section in a yet-to-be-announced publication that is said to reach 67 million readers.

- Inviting travel writers on a St. Croix-specific press trip, with the theme of "Uncover St. Croix: From Columbus to Cruzan Rum."

- Continuing the "No passport required" initiatives to keep the public informed that although the documents are now needed for most Caribbean islands, they are not necessary for travel to the Virgin Islands. Media still are interested in the change, particularly to track whether travel to some islands does decrease, Laney said. That interest is expected to last for about another year.

The private-sector response to the plans described Tuesday was enthusiastic.

"Feel that blowing through the room? That's fresh air," V.I. Hotel and Tourism Association president Rik Blyth said after the Tourism Department speeches.

In past years, the department's presentations provided a look at advertising and PR efforts that local hoteliers had not necessarily known about, said Sid Kalmans, who owns the Hotel Caravelle on St. Croix. Now, he said, hoteliers have constant contact and input into the plans. Kalmans recently participated in the review team that chose a Danish marketing firm for the Virgin Islands, for instance.

"They have new surprises, but it's not in a vacuum," he said. "It's not, 'Here's what we're doing.' It's 'Here's what we're all doing."

Also on Tuesday, V.I. Hotel and Tourism Association marketing director Luana Wheatley presented a new informational video showing Virgin Islands resort properties that can be shown to travel agents.

The association's Cooperative Marketing Initiative - a pool of hotel-promotion funds - is up to $700,000 and includes 11 V.I. properties along with allied members."

We're all looking for a breath of fresh air for our islands. Don't you agree?