In the context of the Caribbean Travel MarketPlace (CHTA) international event celebrated in Barbados last week, Travel2Latam had the opportunity to interview Richard Moss, Senior Sales Manager for USA of Saint Lucia.
How do you describe the situation in your country in terms of tourism?
Tourism is very strong in 2023, all markets together are up 32% over last year, and so we had a very strong winter season, and we are certainly now focused on summer, so we are marketing very aggressively. We were the second country in the world to be open since the pandemic, and so we had the benefits of an early opening, and our early helped all the markets.
How are you preparing for the summer season?
Based on the information about our consumers we recognize there is an interest to travel. And we are really trying to ensure we always focus on the experience, so there is a cost in traveling, but that value is expressed by adding experience. We are also working with hotel partners to get special offers for the summer, and we have good airlifts for principally the US, sittings from Canada, also from the United Kingdom.
What business niches do you see growing?
The niche we see growing firstable is romance, we have been many times looking for the top of the romance and honeymoon destinations in the world, and we are now looking for the development of well-being markets, we have hotels with great spas, and the people who rest there get spas included everyday, also the resorts include yoga, organic dinners, and a really wellness work.
In which source markets did you have more progress and why?
I would say that the US markets for us, is always a significant market, we have overbusiness about 50% is coming from the US, and that is only because Canada has not yet fully recovered, because they opened later after the pandemic. And then, Europe has the issues and more significant concerns with the inflation and strikes, and also they closed up to that on rest so european is a little more complicated.
How are you working in your international promotion?
We going for a global approach so even do each market is very different, we are working is consistent and systematic in our promotion, and we are really trying to make sure that digital is dominant, so we are targeting the right audience, and that consistency could be seen in our messaging and the way we present ourselves in different markets.