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BTA President: Mega Fam 2011 a resounding success
6/26/2011
OUSTANDING!
That is how President of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA), David Rice has described the BTA’s Mega Fam 2011 – a familiarisation event to give travel agents from across the world a firsthand glance at Barbados and what the country has to offer as a premium tourist destination.
His comments came during an interview with the Barbados Advocate at the market place and seminar that took place at The Concorde Experience yesterday morning.
Rice explained that while ordinarily they conduct individual events to market the island to overseas travel agents, they have decided this year to combine all the markets and travel agents in one series of events – a move, he said, that is proving to be working quite well.
“We find that this gives us more bang for the buck and at the same time, offers the opportunity to interact with each other and maybe they would find some commonalities in some of the things that we do. But I think most importantly, it gets the message out to everybody about how important tourism is in Barbados and that we all have a vested interest in making it the most important. I think when you do that, the sense of ownership is not segmented in very small areas, it is widely approached and everyone understands what its role is for Barbados. What that does is give a much stronger impetus to each person to work harder to achieve that goal,” Rice said.
Rice added that the event has allowed the BTA to ensure that travel agents have a better understanding of Barbados and why Barbados is the unique destination that it is.
“We also depend on these agents to deliver the message, and what we can’t afford to miss is the personal experience. You can talk all you want, but if you go to some place and you touch and feel it, no one can change what that experience means to you; and we believe that gives us an edge, because when someone walks into one of these travel agencies and says they want to go on vacation, the agent can tell them firsthand about their experience in Barbados and that is a completely different and powerful dynamic,” he maintained. (JRT)
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