ASTA Meeting Could Boost Visitor Arrivals to A&B

This week, the Chapter Presidents of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) held a meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.

This meeting has the potential to significantly increase the knowledge of the twin-island state among a very influential group of people, travel advisors in the United States.

The ASTA board chairman, Jackie Friedman, believes that having the leaders of the various chapters of the organization meeting in St. John’s gives them first-hand knowledge of the country, its attractions, and its people. This knowledge will better equip them to ‘sell’ it to their membership as well as members of the traveling public.

Friedman believes that representatives at the meeting will be able to effectively promote the destination because a picture or video speaks a thousand words.

She also predicts that there will be some organic promotion of the destination, as many of them will have representatives from tourist boards at the local level. She expects a nice bump in visitors to the destination.

Zane Kerby, the President and Chief Executive Officer of ASTA, also expressed his support for the meeting.

He noted that the representatives at the meeting were the local leaders who manage the day-to-day affairs of the society across the entire United States.

He also pointed out that there are more than two hundred meetings each year at the local level of ASTA.

Kerby believes that the chapter presidents will go back to their home bases in the US and talk about Antigua and Barbuda to all the local constituencies of ASTA members throughout the US.

They will tell them of Antigua and Barbuda’s riches, its features, its beauty, and everything else about the country.

As an organization, ASTA supports and defends its members at all levels of government, within the industry itself, and to the traveling public. It has membership in all 50 US states and in over one hundred and twenty countries internationally.

The ASTA meeting took place on Monday and Tuesday and was hosted by Sandals Antigua Grande Resort and Spa.