Membership Application

Year in Review

December, 2008

The Year in Review from your Marketing Chairman:

2008 has definitely been quite a year! Filled with ups and downs, joy and sorrow, I will try and recollect as much as possible.  Please excuse any areas or anyone I missed.

We welcomed Lisa Hamilton as our new Executive Director.  Lisa came to us with a wealth of experience having been the Director of Marketing for Frenchman’s Reef, as well as Marketing Chair for the St. Thomas/St. John Hotel Association.  She hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped since.  

We created a finance committee with Andrea Hamilton in our St. Thomas office and Julie Printy, our treasurer at the helm.  Andrea and Julie took on the enormous task of getting our associations books in order. Hats off to you both and thank you to the other committee members, Anton Kuipers, Margi Levy, Debi Gerson-Locke, and Lisa Hamilton who volunteered their time to assist.

We welcomed the opening of a new hotel in Downtown Christiansted, The Company House, a sister hotel to King Christian.  Earl and his staff and crew did a beautiful restoration job.  I know I am looking forward to enjoying the lobby piano bar!

As of November, 2008 we have welcomed 13 new members bringing our membership up to 71.  Kudos to the membership committee of:  Jacques Baheux, Simone Palmer, Wendy Solomon and Michelle Pugh. 

 All of us have as individuals and businesses struggled with rising costs of  electricity, fuel, food,  baggage fees, and airline cuts just to name a few.  Then as if these weren’t enough to deal with, October brought us Hurricane Omar.  Well, we all complained how high our WAPA payments were so maybe this was someone’s way of giving us a little break.  Hopefully by now power, phone and cable have been restored to all.  Thank you to the quick response of the DOT Team to come over to St. Croix,  access the islands needs and work diligently to assist in working to get us up an running again.  Beverly and her teams visits to the various hotels and downtown was greatly appreciated by all.   Thanks again! 

Individually and as an association, we have had to deal with the hardest struggle of all.   The sudden loss of our beloved President and General Manager of Divi, Patrick Henry was so shocking and devastating.  In the time that Pat lived in St. Croix, he touched so many lives and helped so many organizations.  He will be sorely missed.

Thank you to Earl Powell for taking over the presidency until our election in May, 2009.  We all know what big shoes Earl has to try and fill but he has all of our heartfelt support.

Congratulations to Simone Palmer, owner of Sandcastles on The Beach, who has been voted in as Vice President to fill the seat vacated by Earl. 

The status of our finances and marketing efforts are as follows: 

Starting January 1, 2008 we had $38,550.00 in our marketing fund. As of November 1, 2008 we have $12,975.12.   Generous donations from Hovensa of $10,000.00 and the royalty money we received from the Discover Book of $5943.75 really helped us to continue keeping a St. .Croix presence in key markets this past year.

Some initiatives and participation:

• Completion and launching of our new St. Croix Hotel and Tourism website, www.
• Revised our contract with Valentine/Graber Associates to represent us at travel shows in key markets but discontinue visiting travel agents as we now have a data base from Paul of over 3,000 agents.
• Participated in DOT trade shows in Atlanta, Washington, Boston, and Florida.
• St. Croix hotels partnered with  The Travel Desk in St. Croix  and  the DOT for the 2nd annual  Blue Bay Jazz festival offering visitors a 4th night free.
• Through our contract with HCI and the generosity of those who purchased ads in the Discover Book, we received advertizing dollars of $20,000.00 to be used in specific newspapers.  The ones chosen by the Association Board were Bradenton Herald in Florida, The News and Observer in North Carolina, the Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania, and the Sun News in South Carolina. These ads ran 3 times and the total in ad dollars that it would have cost was $19,619.15. We also were generously given a free ad for the Miami Herald that is worth $9261.00.  The marketing committee voted to offer   the “ONE SWEET DEAL” Promotion, art work created by Wendy Solomon and her staff at Media Mate which can be viewed on the website. 
• “Scandinavia Here We Come” 2 of our members, Earl Powell of the King Christian and Dawn Taber-Cayer of the Caravelle Hotel participated in a whirlwind trip through Scandinavia sponsored by the DOT from October 17-24. Visits included Oslo, Aarhus, and Copenhagen.  They participated in trade shows, sales calls and workshops.  Coming right on the heels of Hurricane Omar, timing couldn’t have been better.  Both Earl and Dawn have already received bookings.  I think they may even have booked rooms while still there!
• We sent Michelle Pugh of Dive Experience to represent the St. Croix Hotel Association at the 2008 DEMA show in Las Vegas. She collected over 125 business cards which Wendy Solomon, the association’s secretary and our webmaster used to create a newsletter that was sent out to those email addresses on the cards. 
• In conjunction with the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce for our annual Christmas Party we raised over $30,000 for the Boys and Girls Club which was to go to purchase vans for both the Christiansted and Frederiksted offices.  Since we were only able to purchase one van, we voted to support the Boys and Girls Club at our Holiday Hope Party again this year to raise money to meet our commitment to purchase the second van.
• Collected over 500 toys for “Toys for Tots” campaign

Going forward…our plans for 2009 include:

• December 4, 2008 -our annual Christmas Party to be held at The Divi.  Not only will we be raising funds for the 2nd van for the boys and Girls club, but we are creating The Patrick Henry Scholarship Fund.

• Email quarterly newsletter to travel agents using database compiled through Paul Graber
• Reprint the St. Croix information flier and create addition market specific collateral.
• Continue our relationship with Paul Graber for representation at trade shows.

• Winter Escape promotion offer in cooperation with the DOT that will provide additional incentives to make purchases while on-island. Valid for bookings made through December 10, for travel between December 15 and March 31, 2009, the enhanced offer provides visitors with $300 in AMEX Travelers Checks with each booking, in addition to a $50 credit on attractions and a $50 certificate towards meals at on-island restaurants, and a coupon book with savings on activities and attractions.  The Winter Escape offer also features a complimentary fifth night stay at participating hotels. The total value for the consumer visiting the Virgin Islands for at least five days is more than $2,000.

• Continue to piggyback on as many shows as possible where the Dot will have representation to create both a larger St. Croix and US Virgin Island presence.
• Summer Sizzling Sampler 2009!  The DOT has already pre-launched this package with our European Tour Operators so hopefully we will have a jump start on the upcoming Summer Season.

Our elections for President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer  in May, 2009 are just around the corner, so start thinking now if running for an office fits into your schedule  or at least volunteer for a committee.  I want to encourage our members to take a more active role in your association.   There are so many areas we could use assistance with and would like to expand our involvement in the community by forming new committees but we need your help!  Just don’t join the association, but join together with us to make the association strong! 

Some committees that we need more help on include:

• FUNDRAISING
• EDUCATION
• TOMMY STAR

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any ideas or questions you may have regarding our Marketing efforts or the association in general.  My email address is debi@dglhotels.com , my office number is 713-8000 and my fax number is 713-8002.

Thank you again to Lisa Hamilton, all the members of the Marketing Committee, The Board of Directors and our Allied Members for your continued support.  

It has truly been an honor to work with such a committed team of professionals whose unwavering, primary focus is for the betterment of our association and St. Croix.

I would like to wish all of you best wishes for the holiday season and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.

Yours truly,

Debi Gerson-Locke
Marketing Chairman