More than 500 travel industry staff have been trained as part of St Lucia month as visitor numbers to the island show encouraging signs of recovery .
The St Lucia Tourist Board has run a face-to-face training programme with more than 200 travel agents nationwide and more than 300 frontline tour operator reservations staff as part of the annual St Lucia month to boost product knowledge of the destination.
The news comes as the tourist board reports visitors from the UK were 14% up in February. UK visitor numbers were up 10% until the end of October last year when Hurricane Tomas hit the island, damaging homes, cutting off power supplies and flooding roads. The country is targeting a 15% increase in annual arrivals this year.
St Lucia month has involved quizzes for agents nationwide, with 12 winning teams of three set to travel to St Lucia in July for a treasure hunt challenge, sponsored by British Airways. The winning team will scoop £5,000 in marketing funds for their agency. It is the first time the tourist board has held the event.
St Lucia Tourist Board marketing director Jean-Marc Flambert said: “We realised that we needed to give extra incentives to the trade and it’s been really successful. At many of the quiz events we had to introduce tie-breakers; agents were very knowledgeable and put a lot of effort into this. Overall the month has been very successful.”
Most bookings for St Lucia still come through the trade, he added, and five agent fam trips to the destination are planned this year. The destination is promoting a Live The Legend theme, encouraging consumers to “create their own legends” when they go on holiday there.
St Lucia Tourist Board director of tourism Louis Lewis added: “There is no point coming to the UK and saying we want people to experience St Lucia – we need to take agents out there.”
Lewis said UK visitor numbers were increasing on the back of extra flights to the island, giving consumers more flexibility in terms of holiday durations. British Airways has just launched daily direct flights, while Virgin already offers four flights a week. “It allows visitors to customise their packages. There are a lot more options and you can conceivably now stay for ten days.”
He said Air Passenger Duty was not impacting on UK visitor numbers but was hitting holidaymaker spend in St Lucia. “They are spending less when they get to St Lucia, which affects rural communities in terms of sights and attractions. I’d like APD to disappear but realistically I am hopeful it won’t go up.”