U.S. Virgin Islands Upgrades Tourism Website with Agent Features

The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism has unveiled a suite of enhancements to its tourism website, www.VisitUSVI.com, newly updated as of Nov. 20. The recent enhancements mark the second phase of the department’s ongoing strategy to keep the destination at the forefront of marketing to potential visitors online.

The phase II enhancements include additional content and functionality in the Packages & Promotions, Meetings & Incentives and Travel Agent areas of the site, as well as a Spanish language translation available for the entire site. In an effort to help travel agents sell the destination to potential visitors, the department has also created a new Travel Agent Kit on VisitUSVI.com’s Travel Agent page that includes key assets for agents to utilize for creating visually-pleasing presentations to customers. These include a selection of images and video from all three islands.

In light of the continued success of the department’s incentive packages, VisitUSVI.com has seen a significant increase in traffic to its Packages & Promotions page. As a result, the department has enhanced user functionality throughout the page with larger visuals to coincide with each promotion, as well as the ability to more easily add new destination packages and promotions to the site. Currently featured is the Territory’s INNTimate Treasures package.

Additionally, visual upgrades were applied to the Meetings & Incentives page to highlight important content such as the Material Library, Meeting Planners Guide, Group Rewards page and newly-added Request for Proposal form. A Request for Proposal form allows meeting planners to easily submit group event details via the site.

Upon completion of this form, details of the event are sent in real-time to on-island destination management companies and properties which fit the meeting planners bid specifications to facilitate to the highest level of customer service response.

Since the launch of VisitUSVI.com in February of 2009, the site has seen a 100 percent increase in monthly unique visitors. The DOT’s aggressive marketing of the new site has doubled the number of consumers who are actively seeking out the USVI online as a vacation destination.