Black Meetings and Tourism

July / August 2018

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ST. KITTS PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT AT ROUTES AMERICAS Wins 'Highly Commended' Award by Vote of the Airline Network Planning Community B M & T ••• July/August 2018 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 27 Pictured: The St. Kitts Tourism Authority delegation of (left to right) Airlift Consultant Candice Kimmel, Founder and CEO of Adams Unlimited; Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority; and Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority accepting their "Highly Commended" award in the Destination cate- gory of the Routes Americas Marketing Awards as present- ed by Steven Small, Brand Director, Routes, UBM EMEA. The St. Kitts Tourism Authority is pleased to announce that it won a coveted "Highly Commended" award in the Destination category of the Routes Americas 2018 Marketing Awards. It was selected for this award by vote of airline net- work planners from the Americas region. "It is a great honor to receive this award from the air- lines," said the Hon. Mr. Lindsay F.P. Grant, Minister of Tourism, International Trade, Industry and Commerce. "Air service is key to the development of our tourism product, so to have the carriers themselves vote for us is truly a testa- ment to the success of our strategic route development and airlift marketing." "Earning the 'Highly Commended' award is an excep- tional accomplishment for St. Kitts and we are very grateful to the airlines for this accolade," said Nick Menon, Chairman of the Board of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. "I am extremely pleased that St. Kitts has achieved this distinction from airlines and their network planners," said Racquel Brown, CEO of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority. "We have worked hard to continue to increase airlift year over year from key gateways and develop and maintain our relationships with all the legacy carriers servicing St. Kitts. Having our efforts recognized by them but also by airlines who were judges that do not currently service St. Kitts demonstrates that our airline strategy and destina- tion marketing are outstanding, therefore this award is a remarkable accomplishment. Although St. Kitts & Nevis is the smallest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, achieving this award clearly demonstrates that we can compete on a much larger scale." The Routes Americas 2018 Marketing Awards winners and highly commended organizations (runners up) were announced during a ceremony at the Routes Americas Networking Evening on Wednesday, February 14 in Quito, Ecuador. Further to St. Kitts, the other Destination category finalists in the Awards included Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., Charleston Area CVB, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (Destination Award winner) and San Diego Tourism Authority. Destination finalists were determined by the votes of airline network planners. All destination finalists were required to provide details about their marketing activi- ties. These submissions were then reviewed by a panel of industry expert judges from the airlines to determine the winners. The judges for the Destination category includ- ed: Max Barrus, Manager, Scheduling, Allegiant Air; Barbara Acosta, Head of Strategy & Network Planning, Volaris; Rafael Moreira Mello Araujo, Network Planning Manager, GOL; Steven Swan, Director International Planning & Airline Partnerships, Southwest; and Eric Friedman, Manager, Route Planning, JetBlue Airways. St. Kitts' submission can be viewed on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/w.JyhWZO2dhY. The annual Routes Marketing Awards recognize excel- lence in airport and destination marketing. They are high- ly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the aviation industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. Airlines voted for the mar- keting services that support the successful launch of new routes or the development of existing ones, and were instructed to vote for the organizations whose marketing efforts over the last 12 months made a real impact on their future network development plans. Pictured: The St. Kitts delegation at Routes Americas cel- ebrating their win with Caribbean colleagues from Antigua and Grenada.

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