St Lucia Tourism Minister, Phillip J Pierre, joined officials of the World Travel Awards Limited for the signing ceremony to launch what has been described as the å“Oscar Eventå” of the World Tourism and Travel Industry. 
The World Travel Awards contract signing, witnessed by members of the local media and local tourism representatives, officially established St.Lucia’s commitment to host the 9th Annual World Travel Awards. 

The black-tie Awards Ceremony will be take place at the new Sandals
Grande St.Lucian Spa & Beach Resort on Friday evening, October 25, 2002.  The event will bring to the island of St.Lucia some of the world’s most important personalities, decision makers and business leaders in the travel and tourism industry.

In his address, Minister Pierre said “The World Travel Awards will provide St.Lucia with the opportunity of a lifetime, to showcase the island to a large number of potential investors and other persons who influence the global industry.  This event will serve as a powerful marketing tool for our destination and signifies the confidence of the organizers in our capabilities”, Pierre said adding that it was also a unique opportunity that all tourism interests in St.Lucia should take full advantage of.

Pierre also commented that the Awards, which were previously held in Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas, Bahamas, London, Jamaica, and Malaysia, would give St.Lucia sustained international attention including live web casts and press coverage from the world’s leading media. “In the present fiscal realities that exposure is priceless, and government intends to maximize the public relations opportunities afforded by the event”, he said.

The Minister also said that in keeping with the spirit of partnership, the National Development Corporation had joined the St.Lucia Tourist Board in sponsoring the event, in addition to the involvement of the St.Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, Air Jamaica Ltd. and Sandals Resorts which provided the venue for today’s press conference as well as will host the Awards Ceremony in October.
Graham Cooke, President of World Travel Awards Limited, addressed the approximately 50 invited guests and exhibited a live presentation of the World Travel Awards website, www.worldtravelawards.com
.  The six-figure marketing campaign also includes paid listings positioning with search engine and directories Overture, Google and Espotting, an e-mail campaign to 45,000 travel professionals worldwide, media placement on leading travel portals including Travelocity, Sabre, TravelNow and a special banner campaign on the websites of companies that have been nominated for an Award. Developed in twelve languages, the World Travel Awards site prompts travel professionals from around the world the opportunity to put forward their selection for industry favorites across a range of 152 categories in the global voting campaign, which continues online through October 20th.  The website also showcases the island of St. Lucia as a premier Caribbean travel destination as well as Sandals Grande St. Lucian Spa & Beach Resort, host of this year’s awards ceremony, with direct links to both companies’ websites.

The World Travel Awards were created in 1993 for the express purpose of acknowledging and celebrating excellence in all areas of the world`s travel & tourism industry.  The 9th Annual World Travel Awards carded for October 25th will be held at the new Sandals Grande St.Lucian Spa & Beach Resort, which opens on September 21st, following a US$10 million renovation and refurbishment.

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