The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with International Travel Communications (ITC) to promote CTO’s consumer website www.doitcaribbean.com to the North American and Caribbean travel trade and to secure advertising partners for the site.“CTO’s partnership with International Travel Communications will enable us to enhance the overall effectiveness and market reach of our website www.doitcaribbean.com,” said Hugh Riley, CTO’s director of marketing for the Americas. “Most importantly, these enhancements will provide a direct benefit to our CTO members and users of the site.”

ITC, a US-based marketing and communications company, will be responsible for the enhancement of the information about Caribbean suppliers that is presented and disseminated to North American consumers via the website, which records over a million visitor sessions annually. ITC will oversee the addition of partner-marketing opportunities to the site including interactive vehicles such as banners and listings of vacation experience categories. These will include car rentals, hotels and excursions. These new on-line products will allow all businesses, small or large, to create a presence on CTO’s site for marketing purposes.

Standards for the website will be set by CTO with the assistance of ITC, to fit the overall character and objectives of www.doitcaribbean.com.

Through this new marketing model, CTO will have the ability to broaden its overall Internet marketing efforts. ITC will develop and maintain databases of travel agents and consumers, allowing CTO to communicate more efficiently with users. CTO’s marketing partners will be able to participate in co-operative marketing programmes that are tailored for users of the site.

“Planning a Caribbean vacation should be a pleasurable experience from start to finish. We’re confident that our region’s marketing partners will benefit tremendously from this latest effort to make our site an even more user-friendly environment,” said Arley Sobers, CTO’s director of research and information management.

“We are very excited to be working with the Caribbean Tourism Organization to promote the Caribbean region to North American consumers,” said Roy Stepanian, president of International Travel Communications.

“We have been successful in increasing visibility for other regions of the world and are confident that we can expand the Caribbean’s market share through our enhancements to the region’s website,” Stepanian added.

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