GTA Chief Executive Officer Ms. Patricia Maher (Centre) and German Representatives
(St. George’s, Grenada) 8th May 2017— Pure Grenada, the Spice of the Caribbean is experiencing year on year growth in the German market and the GTA is seeking more opportunities to increase its market share. In April, CEO of the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) Patricia Maher visited Germany to meet with travel agents, tour operators and airlines that are Grenada’s partners. The meeting with the decision makers of Condor Airlines was especially enlightening as Pure Grenada was commended for already being 20% ahead of its bookings last year.
The GTA CEO was able to meet with Head of Network Development Long Haul for Condor Airlines Wilken Bellmann and his Junior Manager Ruben Schmidt. Coming out of that meeting it was agreed that focus should be placed on growing Winter season bookings.
CEO Maher says, “ I was excited to hear that CONDOR is partnering with Caribbean Airlines and are in negotiations with LIAT for connecting flights. This is great news for us especially for Summer 2017. Germans can check-in in Frankfurt and connect seamlessly with luggage on LIAT to Pure Grenada. CONDOR are also code sharing with Air China so it makes Frankfurt a seamless hub to Asia for Grenada.”
Subsequently, meetings were held with key persons at Thomas Cook/Neckermann and DerTouristik/Meier’s Weltreisen Tour Operators to discuss the promotion of destination Pure Grenada. Ideas were shared on how to reach the travel agents who sell long haul destinations through special mailings, cooperative advertising and increased roadshows.
As part of the visit, the CEO and German sales team representatives ensured that they paid visits to travel agents in Wiesbaden and at Frankfurt Airport to engage them on selling Grenada as a destination. The selection of hotels in the catalogues were explained and the reasons why Germans would love the destination were highlighted. Ms. Maher is fluent in the German language and conducted all meetings and interviews in German.
During the busy period, CEO Maher was also able to conduct interviews with Sylvia Raschke from Touristik Aktuell and Martina Feyerherd from FVW AG. Both journalists were provided with statistics on visitor arrivals from Germany. In addition, they were updated on new hotel and attraction developments and are excited about the destination.
