New Caribbean Head Aims to Reinvigorate Chapters
by Geri Bain |
“Travel agents are extremely important to the Caribbean,” said Sylma Brown Bramble, newly appointed to the post of Director-The Americas for The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), which promotes tourism to the region.
Responsible for marketing the Caribbean throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, Brown Bramble said her mission is to make the Caribbean a household name across the Americas, leveraging the limited available funds and “working with all partners in the industry.”
She has been rising through the ranks of the CTO and its predecessor, the Caribbean Tourism Association, since 1976 and has been acting in the position of director since August 2008. Over the years she has been at the forefront of organizing major CTO conferences and consumer events and managed teams of public relations, marketing and travel professionals.
She will continue to be based in CTO’s New York office, working closely with all sectors of the tourism industry.
Reinvigorating the Chapters
In addition to pursuing public relations opportunities and working with member countries to create programs to promote the Caribbean, her key goals include working with travel agents and “reinvigorating” the CTO chapters, she said. “We will have staff across the U.S. to support the travel agent chapters.”
The CTO chapters are specifically set up to support travel agents. “We began forming chapters in 1974-75 with the Greater NY chapter. The importance of travel agents has not diminished and we know they are critical to selling of the Caribbean.”
“When we talk to them [travel agents] about their needs, they say access to decision makers and info on the Caribbean, which we provide. They want us to deliver educational programs, which help them sell. At the end of the day, to the extent that they know the destination, they can sell it well,” she said.
The CTO creates educational programs for chapters, she noted. “In some instances, they are invited to meetings in the Caribbean, and we encourage them to do a tour when there and then return to do a presentation on the destination to their colleagues.”
Travel Sellers on CTO Board
“Travel agents consistently tell us that they want to be involved and have input into some of the things we do,” she said.
“The chapters bring travel agents into the highest levels of CTO decision making. They have seats on the CTO Board of Directors, so decisions are made not just from government, but with input from our retail travel agent members. They are telling us what we need to be doing with our marketing plans.”
Changes in the System
Brown Bramble acknowledged that there aren’t as many CTO chapters as there used to be. “In markets where we don’t have a chapter, there is often the feeling we should be doing more.”
The number of chapters has actually diminished, which she attributed both to declining numbers of agencies and to changes in reporting and other requirements. “The CTO is a government agency and we needed reports that were not coming.”
“By centralizing accounting and management, now we can generate the reports we need,” she said. “Some members and chapters were not happy with the change and, in some instances, they chose not to continue. Also, the drop in travel agent numbers was an issue.”
“Rather than 100 chapters, we want to manage the ones we have and use them as a model. We will get to additional chapters when we can handle it right,” she said, noting that the CTO doesn’t start chapters, the agents do.
Starting a Chapter
The process of starting a new chapter begins with a group of at least 25 travel agents notifying the CTO that they want to create a chapter, she explained. They then need to recruit other tourism industry representatives, tour operators, cruise executives, and so on to form a board of directors.
During a provisional period, they find sponsors and recruit new members (at least 50 to obtain chapter status). “We help them do this and walk them through the process,” she said.
In addition to the CTO Chapters, the CTO has an alliance with CLIA and has done joint training webinars, Brown Bramble noted. “We are also working with ASTA and PATA. In fact, ASTA is taking its annual meeting to Puerto Rico next year,” she said.
On Monday, the new CTO director discusses trends in distribution and future niche marketing goals.
For information on the Caribbean or on starting a CTO Chapter, call the CTO office at (212) 635-9530.
