Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications ransportation (TEATT) Hon. Romeo Pantophlet on Tuesday announced moves to enhance tourism promotion following two days of meetings late last week with North American Marketing and Public Relations representatives, Rafael Cardozo, president of Tambourine and Richard Kahn, president of KTCpr.
During the meetings, which took place in Sint Maarten, Minister Pantophlet discussed a wide range of issues, all of which are designed to help continue the increase in tourist arrivals that have been climbing since Tambourine and KTCpr began working with Sint Maarten more than three years ago.
Among the key issues discussed were the re-establishment of a New York office as well as the marketing and advertising strategies moving forward.
Minister Pantophlet plans to continue with the concept of the New York office/store, developed by Rafael Cardozo of Tambourine, which all agreed would be a retail outlet on the ground floor in a high traffic area in New York City. The outlet will have booking capabilities for consumers.
The intention of the Marketing and Advertising strategy is to continue mass marketing, focusing heavily on internet presence.
Both advertising and public relations will be used to drive consumers to the Sint Maarten website and Rafael Cardozo of Tambourine is working on an online booking engine to facilitate easier bookings for vacationers. The booking engine for the website is expected to be launched within a month.
Public relations will also be focused on driving consumers to the website via promotions similar to the recent Dr. Oz television giveaway which featured Sint Maarten worldwide on TV as well as on the Dr. Oz website and drove more than 20,000 visitors to VacationStMaarten.com in just one day.
Furthermore, Richard Kahn, of KTCpr, informed of their intention to tap into the reality TV world by inviting popular reality stars such as the Kardashians to film their shows in Sint Maarten.
The meeting in itself was very productive and Minister Pantophlet is confident in the North American representatives’ abilities to grow Sint Maarten’s presence in the island’s key markets.