by Brian Major
Last updated: 10:15 AM ET, Wed February 7, 2024
Caribbean travel expert Kelly Fontenelle,
founder of Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC), is organizing a
multi-destination Caribbean familiarization trip for travel advisors from May 28
through June 9.
The fam trip will visit three islands.
Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent including a day trip to Bequia in the
Grenadines. The trip has gained “tremendous” response, Fontenelle said, and
features islands that many Caribbean sellers are just learning more about. We
spoke with Fontenelle this week to hear more about this fascinating
opportunity.
Kelly Fontenelle Clarke of TASC (Photo Credit: Kelly Fontenelle Clarke)
TP: What is the idea behind the
multi-destination fam?
KF: I know every Caribbean destination has tried
to do their own thing, but I believe that when we come together, we do so much
better and become stronger. I've always had the idea of showing travel advisors
how to sell multiple Caribbean destinations in one trip. For [advisors] to do a
good job, they have to experience the destinations, so I will be putting
together a multi-island farm trip in the spring.
TP: What’s special about this particular fam
trip?
KF: Ours will be a little bit different because
of us we will focus in depth on three countries, so an agent could literally become
an expert in three destinations. We will be working with photographers, so in each
destination we will take lots of photos so the travel advisor will walk away with
enough content for years from each destination.
It's always hard to find Caribbean images, so
and these will be new and up-to-the-minute. The advisors will have enough
content to use on their social media. We'll also have a social media contest
where the agents could win some prizes, which will get them really ramped up
about social media and creating content and marketing their businesses. They
will have lots of content to promote their agency and the destinations.
Travelers at Grand Etang National Park in Grenada (photo by Brian Major)
TP: What destinations will the fam feature?
KF: We're going to be doing Barbados, Grenada and Saint Vincent. Barbados is a hub when
it comes to access, and it has so many different gateways and lots of providers for air accessibility. Then we will be using Virgin Atlantic flying nonstop
over to Grenada. We’re letting our American travel advisors know you can do a multi-destination
Caribbean itinerary with an airline like Virgin Atlantic. [Travelers] can actually
visit different islands on Virgin Atlantic, so it's not always like a small
plane. You do have options for multi-destination travel with a big airline partner.
TP: What’s next on the itinerary?
KF: From Grenada we are going over to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
We'll be spending four nights in each country, so advisors get the experience of
each destination. They will also be able to meet with local suppliers to
partner with and curate their own packages for their clients. We also working
with a local tour operator, Caribbean Travel and Tours travel, in St. Vincent.
They're all the best in Saint Vincent with a lot of products and a lot of
experiences for visitors.
TP: What will the advisors learn about the
destinations?
KP: Barbados is a beautiful destination and
again, they have really good air access. It’s part of the southern Caribbean and
a little less known than other Caribbean islands, although Rihanna has put them
on the map. But there are very unique
things about Barbados. It is the birthplace of rum and there is so much history
there. There is Harrison’s Cave and some very unique properties.
Grenada has the Caribbean’s first underwater
park sculpture park, and the island is also known for world-class cocoa. It's also
a destination that's growing prominent in the Caribbean for its cuisine,
so there’s lots to learn about.
St. Vincent has the largest botanical garden in
the Western Hemisphere and is also known for its beaches. It is a volcanic
island, so there are black sand beaches, but there are white sand beaches on
Palm Islands, Bequia and Mayreau.
TP: What would you like advisors to take away
from this experience?
KF: There’s a lot of generalization about the
Caribbean. The Caribbean is blessed with sun, sea and sand, but we try to stay
away from that and learn more about the culture, the history and the cuisine of
these destinations. Advisors will also see the other ways that the people of
the Caribbean stand apart.
We know the Caribbean was colonized, so we have
that European element. You can see it in the buildings, on the walkways and in
the food. So there's lots of rich history in the Caribbean that we
want the agents to be able to sell. We want them to sell more of the
destination and not just the hotel.
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